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PRESENTED BY 



AlON-AlONIOS: 



An Excuesus on the Greek Word Eendered Ever- 
lasting, Eternal, Etc., in the Holy Bible. 



;ith Qppzribixzs. 



JOHN WESLEY HANSON, A. M., D. D. 



Quanto quis altms eraditione in antiquitate Christiana eminuit, tanto 
magis, spem finiendoruni olini cruciat&m aluit atque defendit. 

—J. C. Dqederlein, Inst. Theol. Chr., Vol. n, p. 199. 



CHICAGO: 

Jansen, McClukg, & Company. 
1880. 



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Copyright, 

J. W. Hanson. 

1880. 



GEO. DANIELS, PRINTER, CHICAGO. 



PREFACE. 

1 

The author of this volume has carefully sought 
to present the usus loqaendi of the word that forms 
the last line of defence of the doctrine of endless 
punishment. It was some time since virtually 
conceded that the human intellect and the 
human affections protest against the doctrine, but 
it is yet claimed that the positive declarations of 
the Bible, and especially that the texts in which 
the seonian terms are connected with punishment, 
announce it so distinctly that it must be accepted as 
the sentiment of the Bible. With as much care and 
candor as he could command, constantly impelled by 
the sole desire to ascertain the facts in the biography 
of the word, the author has traced it from its earliest 
appearance until it had been in constant use for 
nearly two thousand years. He has quoted or cited 
the first hundred or more passages in which it occurs, 
and has given illustrative instances of its use in each 
of the more recent centuries, and has referred to 
most of the texts in the Bible containing it. 



4 AION-AIONIOS. 

In sending out the results of his investigations 
he asks each of his readers to do him the favor to 
notify him of any error, however slight, that may 
possibly be detected, though he dares venture to 
believe that few or none such will be discovered. 

May the book be read with the disposition that 
has actuated its preparation, and carry conviction 
only as it conveys the truth ! 

Chicago, July, 1880. 



CONTENTS. 



I. INTRODUCTION 9-16 

II. ETYMOLOGY 17-29 

III. LEXICOGRAPHY 30-47 

IV. USAGE.-I. Classic 48-62 

ii. Old Testament 62-86 

in. Jewish Greek 86-91 

iv. Kew Testament 91-146 

v. Early Christian 146-162 

APPENDIX A , 163 

B 164 

C 166 

D 167 



INDEX. 



Page. 

Abbot, Prof., Harvard Uu'y 158 

Acton's definition of aion 36 

Adialeiptos 120 

Mi, meaning of, 24-27 

Limited 126 

number of times in New Tes- 
tament 25 

iEons, doctrine of 114 

iEschylus' use of aion 34, ,49. 

52, 58 

Agamemnon 52 

Agesilaus 89, 163 

Ages in Bible 38, 133 

Aidios..l20. Appendix B, 89, 122 

164, 124,125 

Aion, a tamin life 136 

beginning of .98 

Christian life 94 

Classic use of 148 

derivation of 17-29 

end of 133 

finite duration. . 94 

God'sendless 26, 65, 95 

governed by eis 140 

Idumea's limited 26 

inNew Testament... 39, 99, 100 

Jewish age 93 

Kingdom of Christ 92 

long time 94 

man's limited 26 

more than eternal 99 

New Testament use. 39, 92, 100 

Old Testament use. . .13, 63, 73 

plural „ 94 



Page. 

Aion, repetitions of 99 

same as olarn 13 

times m Old Testament 65 

— -usage of 30, 46 

Aionion life and aionion punish- 
ment same 125 

Aionion lire lost 120 

Aionios in Old Testament 69 

not same in same sentence. 117 

punishment in New Test. . . 104 

timesinNewTestament92,101, 

103 

Akataluton 119, 122 

Alcestis 26 

Alcinous 51 

Alexandrinus, Clemens 157 

Alford 138 

Alger's Future Life 112 

Alleged Discrepancies of Bible.. 

12 

Amarantos 119, 122-25 

Amarantinos 119, 122-25 

Ambrose 157 

Anacreon 62 

Anderson, Galusha, D. D 139 

Andromache 49, 52 

Anthologica Graeca 164 

Anthology 163 

Anthology, Greek 1 63 

Ant. Jud. Josephus 87, 88 

Aphthartos 119,122-25 

Apeiros 122, 122-25 

Aperantos 122-25 

Apollodorus 164 



AION-AIONIOS. 



Pdge. 

Apollonius Rhodius 163 

Apostles'.Creed 148 

Appendix A 163 

— T3 164 

C ' 167 

D .".167 

Aquinas, Tnos 118 

Archaeology, Jahn's 86 

Arethas 164 

Argonaufcica 163 

Aristotle, 22,24, 26, 27, 55-60, 114, 

121,122,123 

his derivation of aifm 26 

nis etymologies 28, 29 

his useof aion 18, 22, 24 

Aryan origin of aion 19 

Assemanni, Bib. Orient 155 

Ateleutetos , 89,121 

Aterrnon 123 

Athanasian 119 

Athanatos 89, 122 

Atheism, Nat. Hist, of 44 

Angustin, St., ...115, 118, 125, 126, 

155, 158, 160 

Autenrieth 34 

Avitus 156 

Balfour, Walter 83 

Barnes, Albert 135 

Bartlett, Prof. S. C....83, 110, 166 

Basilidians 157 

Bass' lexicon 22 

Beard, Dr. J. B 98 

Beausobre 36 

Beecher, Dr. Edward, 23, 27, 29, 31, 

37, 38, 49, 52, 59, 66, 89, 121, 126, 

147, 149, 151, 157, 158 

Beecher, H. W 86 

Benfey 21 

Bengel 132 

Benson 35,135 

Blackie, Prof.J. S 44 

Boise, Dr. J. R 22, 23, 139, 140 

Boothroyd — 35 

Bopp 21 

Bostra, Titus of 150 

Burthosr's Christianity 133 

Bush, Prof. George 124 

Buxtorf 12 

Byzantinus, Eeontius 45 

Csesarius 45 

Campbell, Dr. A 35, 79 

Campbell, Dr. Geo 109 

Carpocratians 157 

Celsus 136 

Christian, early usage 146 

ChristianExaminer. 18, 32, 52, 64, 

130 

Christian Union 86 

Clarke, Dr. Adam, 21, 22, 35, 109 

134 

Prof.J.C 51,53,61 

Classics, Greek 48 

Cleanthes 25, 26 

Clemance 127 

Clement of Alexandrial 13, 143,157 

Clowes, Dr. T 7,9, 10, 74 

Cousin 56 

Cox, Samuel 56, 114 

Cratylus, Plato's 28 

Cremer's lexicon 26, 59 

Cruden 35 



Crusius 49 

Cu tiu- 19, 21 

Damascus, John of 30 

Damm's lexicon 27 

De Bello, Josephus' 87, 88 

De Coelo 22, 26, 57 

De Humanitate, Philo's 89 

De Lamennais 44 

Demarest, Rev. G. L 124 

De Mundo 123 

De Poeni, Philo's 897 

De Premi'f s, Philo's 89 

De Qumcey, Thos 40 

Destruction, everlasting 13, 137 

De Ver. Grotius 18 

De Wette 44, 145 

Dexippus 164 

Diaglot, Emphatic, 45, 111, 112, 

139 

Didymus 157 

Dietelmair 138 

Diodorus 51, 59, 157 

Divine Goodnes i, Smith's 39 

Doddridge, Dr. 36 

Doederlein 155, 159 

Dollinger 89 

Donelson 21 

Donnegan 26, 33, 110 

Dorner 153, 155 

Duncan 12 

"Dust of the Earth" 82 

Earey Christian Usage 14ft 

Edwards, Jonathan 126 

Eis ton aiona 138, 142, 168 

Empedocles 51, 56 

Emphatic Diaglot.45, 111, 112, 139 

Encyclopoedia Rel. Knowl 12 

Endlessness, words signifying 119, 

122, 125 

never applied to punishment, 

122 

Endless Punishment, not in Old 

Testament 6,7, 85 

Epictetus 51, 52, 54 

Erinna 52, 61 

Erotianus 20 

Essenes, doctrine of 88, 128 

Eternal Hope. 44, 80, 113, 125,136, 

158 

Eternitv, a modern idea. 10, 11, 44 
Etymologicum, Ling. Gr«c. .17, 32 

Etymology 17 

Etymology no guiae 28 

Eunomius 166 

Euripides 26, 34, 50-52 

Eusebius 26, 154 

Everlasting 77 

destruction 105,137 

punishment. 105, 1 37 

damnation 78, 105 

tire 135 

Ewing 33, 122 

Examinei", Christian 18, 32, 52, 

64, 130 

and Chronicle 53, 57,60 

Exeeetical Essays 103 

Expositor, Universalist 130 

Farrar, Canon, 43, 44, 80, 113, 115, 

116, 125, 131,136, 145, 153 

Ferrar 21, 44 

Fire, everlasting 135 



INDEX. 



Page. 

Fire, disciplinary 114, 115 

Forever 77, 139, 145, 137 

Foster, John 39 

Fragraenta, Philo's 20 

Fragments, Pindar's 20 

Furniss 126 

Fiirst and Taylor 38 

Geikie's Life of Christ 62 

Gehenna limited in duration.. .131 

explained 137 

Gesenius 12, 14, 16 

Giesel 155 

Giles 35 

Gilpin 35 

Goodness, Divine, Smith's 39 

Goodwin, Rev. E. S., 18, 32, 52, 54, 

57,60,64 

Gorgias 56 

Gospel of Nicodemus 155 

Greek' Classics 48 

Jewish 86 

the language of Jews 63 

Greenfield 110 

Gregory of Nyssa 116, 117, 158, 

166 

Thaumaturgus 157 

Griesbach 102, 132 

Grimm 26 

Grote on Plato and Aristotle. 28, 

, 29 

Grotius, De Ver....l8, 26, 110, 132 

Grove, lexicon 22, 33, 122 

Guericke 155 

Hagenbach 155 

Haley, J. W 12 

Hammond 35, 36, 134 

Hector 49,52 

Hedericus 32, 36, 110 

Heraclitus 24 

Hermas 158 

Hermogenes 150 

Herodian 51, 59 

Hero lotus 37, 59 

Hesiod 37,49 

Hesychius 30, 45, 51 

Hierocles 51 

Hincks 34 

Hippocrates 20, 50 

Historia Dogmatis 138 

Hodge, Dr 136, 137 

Homer. .21, 23, 37, 48, 49, 136, 156 

Homeric Dictionary 34 

Hope, Eternal 44, 80,81, 113, 

125, 136, 158 

Huetius 45 

Huidekoper ; 138 

Hypolitus 1 58 

Ignatius 148,158 

Iliad 21, 48, 49, 136 

Inquiry, Balf our's 83 

Inter-Ocean 23, 139 

Introduction 9 

Irenceus 147, 149 

Isidore 157 

Isocrates 51, 58 

Israelitische Religionslehre 131 

Jacob 62 

Jalm 85 

Jerome 157 

Jewish authorities cited 131 

Jewish Greek 86 



Page. 

Jews Hellenized 63, 166 

History of 86 

opinions of 166 

■ reject endless punishment, 

131 

John of Damascus 30 

Jones 35 

Josephus' use of aion, 87, 114, 

129, 130 

useofkolasis 110, 111,114 

Judgment, seonian 138 

Justinian, Emperor 121, 123, 

152, 158,159 

Justin Martyr.... 123, 147, 148, 158 

159 

Keble 118 

Kenrick 36 

Kingsley, Chas . 46, 119 

Knapp 11,79, 102 

Kolasis 109, 114 

Kuhn 21 

Kurtz 155 

Lange 37,72,133,138, 146 

LeClerc 11, 36, 79 

Leonidas 164 

Leonidas the Alexandrine 163 

Leontius Byzantinus 45 

Lexicography 30 

Liddell and Scott. . . .25, 26, 34, 110 

Lite eternal limited 129 

Lindsay 35 

Locke 36 

Lucian's Dialogues 26 

Lucretius 20 

Lutz 34, 36 

LXX, meaning of 16 

Macknight 34, 99 

Maclaine 36 

Manetho 156 

Mangey 's ed. of Philo 89 

Mardon 35 

Martyr, Justin 123, 148, 158 

Massuetus 149 

Maurice, F. D 46 

Meier 13 

Melinna 62 

Mennas 121, 123,152,157 159 

Mill 132 

Milman 85 

Minucius Felix 126 

Mission to Underworld 138 

Modern Universalism, Bartlett's, 

84 

Mcebius 62 

Moody 126 

Mopsuestia, Theodore of 152-3 

Mosheim 36, 147, 153 

Muller, Max 21, 110 

Mundi, Salvator 114 

Murdoch 147 

Neander 30, 155 

Never 77 

New Testament Usage 91 

Testament, when compiled, , 147 

Newton, Sirl 99, 109, 140 

Nicene Creed 147-8 

Nicodemus, Gospel of 155 

Noyes, G. R., D. D 139 

Nyssa, Gregory of 116, 155 

Odyssev 21, 48, 49 

Olam, derivation of 10, 13 



AION-AIONIOS. 



Page. 

different degrees of 12, 13 

duration of 10, 13 

Hebrew synonyms of 13 

meaning of 9, 14, 15 

times in Bible 9, 10 

Old Testament Usage 62 

Olshausen 36, 168 

Olympiodorus 56, 157, 158 

On 25 

Oppert 19 

Oracles, Sibylline 148, 153, 160 

Orestes 52 

Origen 45, 136, 151 

Orosius 126 

Orphica 149 

Paige's Commentary 134 

Paige's Selections 135 

Paley 85 

Parkhurst 11, 22, 25 

Palladius 157 

Parker, Prof. I. N 150 

Passow 33 

Paulus 36 

Pearce 35, 134 

Peile 21 

Pentateuch, translated 62 

Peshito version 146-7 

Phaedon 56 

Pharisees, doctrine of 88, 128 

Phavorinus 18,31 

Philipson 131 

Philoctetes 50 

Phiio, his use of Greek words, 89, 

114,128, 130 

Philo Judseus 51, 113, 130 

Pickering 34, 36 

Pindar 20, 37, 49, 52 

Plato. ... 23. 53, 56, 60, 62, 110, 114 

etymologies of 28, 29 

Plotinus 27 

Plumtre, Prof 114 

Plutarch 51, 52 

Polvcarp 149, 1 58 

Pott 21 

Priam 49 

Prideaux 62 

Prison, spirits in 138 

Proclus 27 

Proep. Evang 26 

Prometheus 52 

Punishment, aion 81 

aionionin New Test... 104, Lb 7 

reformatory 107, 109, 112 

Pusey, Dr 43, 116, 118, 126 

P vthagoras 122 

Rabbinical belief in limited pun- 
ishment ..131 

Eambach 13 

Reed, C. H 22 

Robertson 12 

Robinson 26, 35, 144 

Rosenrnialler 134 

Rost 32 

Ruhnken 20 

Salvator Mundi 114, 170 

Sanscrit origin of aion 19, 21 

Sappho ; 61,62 

Sarpedon 52 

Sayce 21 

Scarlett 36, 79 



Page. 

Schaff 150 

Schindler 12 

Schleicher 21 

Schleiermacher 21,29 

Schleusner 33, 37, 79 

Schmidt 21 

Schrevelius 33, 36 

Schweighaeuser 35, 36 

Sears, Dr. E. H 43 

Septuagint 64 

Sibylline Oracles 148 

Simpson 35,39 

Sin Against Holy Ghost 132 

Smith, T. Southwood 36, 39 

Socrates 54, 110 

Sodom and Gomorrah 135 

Solom. Parab 89 

Sophocles 24, 49, 52,59 

Spirits in Prison. 138 

Spurgeon, C. H 126 

Stephelin's Rabbins 131 

Stephens, Henry 24, 26, 27, 37' 

Stephens' Thesausus 89 

Stuart, Moses 36,79, 103, 144 

Swing, Prof. David 71 

Synonyms, Trench's 20, 113 

of New Test 20 

Syriac Version 11, 146, 148 

Tavlor and Piirst 38 

Dr 33, 79 

Tennyson 116 

Tertullian 126 

Theodore of Mopsuestia 152, 3 

Theodoret 30 

Theolog, Zeitschrift 144 

Thesaurus, Robertson's 12 

Stephens' 89 

Timreus 52, 53, 55, 57, 60 

Times, Chicago 139 

Titus of Bostra 150 

Trench's Synonyms... 20, 113, 114 

Tribune, Chicago 22 

Trypho Dialogue 148 

Union, Christian 86 

Universalism, Modern 83 

Auc. Hist 155 

Universalist Book of Ref 77 

Expos 130 

Universal Restitution, Three-fold 

Basis of 167 

Valpley 35, 36 

Wakefield 35, 109, 134 

Warburton 85 

Welker 62 

Westcott 147 

Wetstein. 1 02 

Whateley 85 

Whitby 35 

White, Pres. N., 18, 21, 29, 61, 150, 

155, 156, 163 

Whiton, Dr.. 14, 101, 121, 127, 136, 

143, 148, 165 

Wilson's Diaglot 45 

World, end of 109 

Worms, undying .115 

Wright 35 

Xenophon.. 37, 59, 163 

Zehetniayr 20 

Zoen aionion 127. 128 

Zonar 31 



Aiosr-AioNios: 



INTRODUCTION. 



The word that is rendered aion-aionios 2 in the Greek 
Septuagint, and everlasting, eternal, etc., in the English Bible, 
is olam, 3 in the original Hebrew Scriptures, derived from obii* 
to cover, or conceal. It literally means hidden, unknown, and, 
when applied to time, it signifies indefinite duration, whether 
past or future. 5 Thus, the hills are said to exist from olam. 
As the Hebrew knew that they had a beginning with the 
creation of the earth, and would end with its destruction, of 
course he did not mean to say that the hills are literally ever- 
lasting when he termed them olamic. As he knew that they 
had a beginning, so he knew they would have an end; 
but as the period of their duration was unknown, he said they 
were from olam. The word is used in one text 6 in both a 
limited and unlimited sense; and it signifies in one case 7 only 
three days and three nights. 

So of future time, some things were to exist to olam, e. g., 
the Covenant, the Law, the Mosaic Economy, the Levitical 
Priesthood, etc., though it was supposed they would cease at 
Messiah's advent. They are olamic, because their duration is 
indefinite, hidden, concealed from man. Dr. T. Clowes 
observes:— "The word olam is used 459 times in the 

1 AIQN-AIQNI02. 2 aiuv-aluvwc . s nhty ^V 

5 The lexicons are uniform in giving this definition. 

6 Hab. iii : 6. 7 Jonah ii : 6. 



10 AION-AIONIOS. 

Old Testament ; and when we consider how uniformly the 
Septuagint translators and the writers of the New Testament 
have rendered the word by aion and aionios, there being 
probably not ten instances of deviation from this uniformity 
by the Septuagint translators, and not so many by the New 
Testament writers ; and when we consider further, the mani- 
fest advantage of this uniformity to those who in former ages 
read the Septuagint and the New Testament in their mother 
tongue, in giving them a clear and definite idea of olam, we 
are led to express a deep regret that the English translators 
did not give their readers a similar advantage. But our trans- 
lators have rendered this virtually one word, olam, occurring 
657 times in the Bible, by almost thirty different words and 
phrases; most of them signifying duration, to be sure, but 
varying their signification as to its extent from a three days' 
duration, to a duration without beginning and without end. 
The first five places in which olam occurs in the Old Testa- 
ment are rendered by no less than five different words : — Gen. 
iii: 22, forever; Gen. vi: 3, always; Gen. vi: 4:, of old; Gen. 
ix: 12, perpetual; Gen. ix: 16, everlasting" In Gen. xiii: 
15, he shows that olam signifies the duration of human life, 
and remarks : — "And let no one be surprised that we use the 
word olam in this limited sense. This is one of the most 
usual significations of the Hebrew olam and the Greek aion, 
and it is perfectly right to use Scripture terms in Scripture 
senses. This sense of olam and aion runs through all the 
writers in Greek, Latin and English. . . . There is no 
evidence that any words in the Old Testament implying dura- 
tion refer to the future life of man. Neither is it certain 
that the ancients, by the terms of duration which they 
employed to describe the Divine existence, fully com- 
prehended the idea of interminable existence. Indeed, 
this is an idea beyond the reach of any human intelli- 
gence. The Hebrew spoke of the earthly existence of man 
as his olam. The Greeks and Latins had the same manner 
of speaking. The aion or cevum of man, meant the period 
of his existence, consisting of a few years on earth ; the aion 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

or cevum of God conveyed the idea of existence without 
beginning of years or end of life." Parkhurst says: — "It 
denotes a hidden duration, and it seems to be used much 
more frequently for indefinite, than for infinite time." 

If the ancient Hebrew wished to express great but un- 
known duration, past or future, he resorted to reduplications 
and intensified forms, as in Micah 8 : — "We will walk in the 
name of the Lord our God for an olam and an olam of olams," 
according to the Syriac version 9 , or, in the Hebrew, for an 
olam of ads, — the latter word being a synomym of the former. 
The phrases, "generations of olams" and "olams of ads" are 
intensified forms of the word for the purpose of describing 
indefinite, but still limited, duration ; for at the time the Old 
Testament was written the Hebrew mind had not cognized the 
metaphysical idea of endless duration, and therefore could 
have no word exj3ressive of eternity. Says a French author 10 : 
— "It is certain that in the Hebrew there is no word which, 
properly speaking, signifies eternity or a time which has no 
end. Gnolam signifies only a time, of which we know not 
the beginning or the end; according to the signification of 
its root, which means to conceal, to hide. Thus it is to be under- 
stood more or less strictly according to the object to which it is 
applied. When it relates to God or his attributes we should 
take it in its largest possible extent, that is to say, of an abso- 
lute eternity. But when it is applied to things that have a 
beginning or an end, we must understand it in a manner so 
limited as the subject requires. Thus, when God says of the 
Jewish laws that they should be observed le gnolam, forever, 
we must understand a space of time as long as God should 
find it proper, a space of which the Jews, before the coming 
of the Messiah, did not know the end." An equally eminent 
German writer " declares : — " The pure idea of eternity is too 
abstract to have been conceived in the early ages of the world, 

8 iv : 5. 9 Tayler Lewis in Lange's Commentary. 

io LeClerc, 1705. (Olam is here spelled after the French and Portuguese 
fashion, the g being silent.) i 1 Knapp, Greek Testament. 



12 AION-AIONIOS. 

and accordingly is not found expressed by any word in the 
ancient languages. But as cultivation advanced and this idea 
became more distinctly developed, it became necessary in order 
to express it to invent new words in a new sense, as was done 
with the words eternitas, perennitas, etc. The Hebrews 
were destitute of any single word to express endless duration. 
To express a past eternity they said, before the world was ; a 
future, when the world shall be no more. . . . The 
Hebrews and other ancient people have no one word for 
expressing the precise idea of eternity." To render olam 
by eternal or everlasting, is therefore manifestly incorrect, or 
to translate its intensified forms by forever, forever and ever, 
etc., is equally inaccurate. The exact equivalent of the noun 
olam is age, epoch, aeon. The double form of aion is a ren- 
dering of the Hebrew olam va ad. Olamis long time, olam va 
ad, longer time. But if olam were eternity, to affix words 
denoting longer would be absurd. In the Septuagint ton 
aiona, kai ep' aiona, kai eti, and in the New Testament eis 
tous aionas ion aionon, etc., are Greek equivalents of olam 
va ad, meaning literally, in English, long, but limited dura- 
tion. 

Duncan, in his Hebrew Lexicon, thus defines olam : — 1. 
"A long indefinite period. Tempus homini absconditum 
tarn infinitum et eternum quam finitum, ut Gen. xvii : 8, 
etc., plerumque est perpetuum, eternum, sempiternum. 
Robertson's Thesaurus. Exod. xxi: 6. — 2. Perpetuity, dura- 
bility, Is. lxiv: 4. — But most frequently eternity. — 3. The 
world, Eccles. iii: 11." Buxtorf and Schindler define olam as 
"A hidden time, an age, time hidden from man." "Gesen- 
ius, in the last edition of his Hebrew Lexicon, gives 
eternity as the first meaning of olam, but remarks that " it is 
frequently used in a limited sense. 12 " J. W. Haley asserts 13 
that " the Hebrew olam, rendered forever, does not imply 
the metaphysical idea of absolute endlessness, but a period 

12 Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge, p. 53. 

13 Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible, p. 126. 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

of indefinite length, as Kambach says, " a very long time, the 
end of which is hidden from us." 

Of course the Greek word aion into which the Hebrew 
olam is almost always rendered, must, in the Old Testament, 
have the precise meaning of the word it represents ; and all 
the modifications of aion, its reduplications and intensified 
forms, must carry the same force as do the Hebrew expres- 
sions whence they are derived. As from olam signifies from 
an indefinite past time, and to olam an unknown time in the 
future, to be interpreted by the subject treated, so from an 
aion or to an aion, must denote indefinite time. An 
olamic period is an aionian period, and an olam of olams 
or an olam of ads is an age of ages. It follows that the cor- 
responding Greek form eis tons aionas ton aionon, instead 
of being rendered forever, or forever and ever, should in 
English, be represented by an age of ages, or ages of ages, or 
some other phrase indicating an indefinite period to be de- 
termined by the subject treated. Of their own intrinsic force 
the words cannot denote endless duration . 14 

The "Comparative Hebrew Lexicon" of Meier says that 
olam (as a verb) is derived from olaph, to cover, to conceal, 
to hide away. He also gives as the meaning of olam (as 
a noun), undetermined (or indefinite) time, past or future, — 
hence, remote time and eternity; thus averring that eternity 
is not the original but the derived meaning. He gives also 
as a later meaning time, tlmehood, (German, zeitlichkeit). 
Besides, he says that zeitlichkeit also means world. 

I* To may be observed that there are several other words that are some- 
times used as the equivalents of olam: ad, until ; netsaeh, flowing ; tamid, sta- 
tionary ; dor, generation ; leedem, east ; kol yamim, all days ; orek, long ; yamim, 
days ; adi-ad, to long future time ; la-ad, to long future time ; dor vador, gen- 
eration to generation. We give the literal meaning, but they are employed 
to indicate indefinite duration. If olam meant eternity, it would be absurd 
to try to add to its meaning by saying olam va ad; if aion meant eternity, it 
would be equally absurd to say els ton aiona, kai eis ton aiona, etc., in the Old 
Testament, or eis tons aionas ton aionbn in the New Testament. No rule of 
language would permit their use. But as the nouns simply denote a long 
time, it is proper to extend their meaning. 



14 AION-AIONIOS. 

It lias long been a prevalent opinion that the words for- 
ever, everlasting, eternal, and their cognates in the English 
Bible, signify endless duration, because it has been supposed 
that the Hebrew and Greek words from which they are rendered 
have that meaning, and, as they are found qualifying pun- 
ishment, it is believed that the occurrence of the words in 
such a connection demonstrates the endlessness of punish- 
ment. The author of this treatise has endeavored to put 
within brief compass the essential facts pertaining to the 
history and use of the word, and he thinks he conclusively 
shows that it does not afford any support whatever to the erro- 
neous doctrine. It will generally be conceded that this tenet 
is not contained in the Scriptures if the meaning of 
endless duration does not reside in the controverted word. 
The reader is implored to examine the evidence presented, as 
the author trusts it has been collected, with a sincere desire 
to learn the truth. The inquiry is pursued in a manner 
intended to be satisfactory to the scholar, while it shall also 
be within the apprehension of the ordinary reader, so that 
the learned and the unlearned may be able to see the subject 
in a light that shall relieve the Scriptures of seeming to teach 
a doctrine that blackens the character of God, and plunges 
a deadly sting into the believing heart. 

It is not going too far to say that if the word in question 
does not carry the force of endless duration, then the dogma 
of endless punishment is not found in the Bible. This 
excursus shows that interminable duration does not reside in 
the word. 15 

15 While passing this work through the press, we came across the follow- 
ing on "olam" in Appendix A, in Is Eternal Punishment Endless? by Rev. 
J. M. Whiton : 

"GESENITTS'S HEBREW-ENGLISH LEXICON,— 'OL AM. 

"A) Properly 'hidden,' specially hidden time, i. e., obscure and long, of 
which the beginning or end is uncertain or indefinite, duration, everlasting, 
eternity, spoken : 

"1. Of time long past, gray antiquity, as Gen. vi : 4, mighty men which, 
were of old (from 'olam.) 

"2. Often also of fiiture time, ever, forever, in such a way that the limi- 
tation is to be determined from the nature of the subject, Thus, 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

"a) Specially in the affairs of single persons, 'olam is sometimes put for 
the whole period of life, as, a servant forever (of 'olam), i. e., not to be set free 
in all his life (Deut. xv:17). Sometimes put for very long life, (Ps. xxi:4) 
length of days for ever and ever ('olam va'ed [like our for ever and aye]). 

"b) As pertaining to a whole race, dynasty, or people, and including the 
whole time of their existence until their destruction. I Sam. ii : 30, Thy 
family shall serve me forever (to 'olam), i. e., so long as it endures. 

"c) Nearer to the metaphysical notion of eternity, or at least to an eternity 
without end, approach those examples in which 'olam is attributed to the 
earth and to the universe. Eccl. i : 4, the earth abideth forever (for 'olam). So 
of human things which refer to a period after death, e. g., sleep of 'olam, 
everlasting sleep, for death, Jer. Ii : 39, 57 ; house of 'olam, his everlasting house, 
long home, Eccl. xii : 5. 

"d) The true and full idea of eternity is expressed by 'olamin those pas- 
sages where it is spoken of the nature and existence of God, who is called, 
(Gen. xxi : 33), the God of 'olam. Of him it is said (Ps. xc : 2), from 'olam and 
unto' olam Thou art God. 

"e) Of a peculiar kind are those passages where the Hebrews by hyper- 
bole ascribe eternity in the metaphysical sense to human things, chiefly in 
the expression of good wishes ; let my lord the king live forever (to 'olam), 
I Kings i: 31. 

"Plur. 'olamim, ages, everlasting ages, like Gr. aitivsc ["tons], i. e., a) ages of 
antiquity, Is. Ii : 9 ; b) future ages, the remotest future, Ps. lxxvii : 7. 

"B) The World, like Gr. a Un> l<eon], hence love of worldly things, worldly- 
mindedness. So Eccl. iii : 11, Although he (God) hath set the love of worldly 
things (olam) in their heart, so that man xmderstandeth not the works of God. 
[So in the New Testament, ' Be not conformed to this world ' (reon— Romans 
xii : 2), is equivalent to ' Love not the world ' (cosmos— I John ii : 15).]" 

It would seem unnecessary to suggest that limited duration is the pre- 
vailing sense of this word by an immense preponderance. Dr. Whiton 
observes, also, pp. 9-10 : 

"'Olam in the Hebrew Testament very frequently meant a world-period or 
cycle. 

"Ecclesiastes i : 4— The eai-tn abideth forever, literally, for the 'olam, or 

cycle: LXX. for the ceo 7i. 

"Psalm cxlv : 13— Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom ; literally , a king- 
dom of all 'olams, or cycles ; LXX. of all the o?o?is. 

"Exodus xl : 15— Their anointing shall surely be for an everlasting 
priesthood; literally, for a priesthood of 'olam, or a cycle; LXX. a 
priestly anointing for the anon. 

"In this last instance, the 'olam, cycle, or mm, closed, as we see by com- 
paring Hebrews .vii : 11, 12, at the end of the Mosaic dispensation. 

"Again. 

"Psalm cxliii : 3— Those that have been long dead ; literally, the dead 
6f 'olam, or, as we should say, "the dead of ages ; " LXX. the dead of ozon. 

"The word ozon accordingly retains in the New Testament this peculiar 
Hebraistic color which the LXX. had given to it." 



16 AION-AIONIOS. 

[The unlearned reader should understand by LXX., the Greek Old Testa- 
ment, that is, the Septuagint, translated from the Hebrew by seventy 
scholars, hence called the LXX.] 

Three avenues are open to us through which to pursue 
this important investigation: — I. Etymology; H. Lexicog- 
raphy; LIT. Usage. 



ETYMOLOGY. 



In studying a controverted word it is interesting to ascer- 
tain, if possible, its derivation, though there can be no more 
unsafe and treacherous guide to the meaning of words than 
Etymology. Usage is the only unerring index. Etymology 
is hypothesis; usage is demonstration. Thus, our common 
word prevent is derived from prce and venio, to come or go 
before, and originally the English word prevent signified to 
go before, as in the Psalm, 1 "In the morning shall my 
prayer prevent thee"; but the word long since changed its 
meaning to hinder. Suppose two thousand years hence some 
one should endeavor to prove that in the year 1880 the word 
prevent meant to go before. He could easily establish his 
position by the etymology of the word, but he would be 
wholly wrong, as would appear by universal usage in our cur- 
rent literature. So that if we agree that the etymology of 
aion indicates eternity to have been its original meaning, it 
by no means follows that it has that force in Greek literature, 
profane or sacred. 

' The most natural derivation of aion, however, does not 
give to the word the sense of endless duration. Lennep 2 
says that it comes from ad (to breathe) which suggests the 
idea of indefinite duration. He says: — "It was transferred 
from breathing to collection, or multitude of times. From 
which proper signification again have been produced those 
by which the ancients have described either age (cevum), or 
eternity (ceternitatem,) or the age of man (hominis ostatem). 

1 lxxxviii : 13. 2 Etymologicum Linguae Graecse. 

2 



18 AION-AIONIOS. 

Commenting on Lennep's derivation of the word, Eev. E. S. 
Goodwin says : 3 — "It would signify a multitude of periods or 
times united to each other, duration indefinitely continued. 
Its proper force, in reference to duration, seems to be more 
that of uninterrupted duration than otherwise; a term of 
which the duration is continuous as long as it lasts, but which 
may be completed and finished, as age, dispensation, saBculum, 
in a general sense." Mr. Goodwin well remarks, 4 "It is not 
necessary to form aion by a composition of aei and on. It 
may arise much more naturally and more in the common or- 
der of things, from the verb aid. It need only be its present 
active participle converted into a substantive, according to a 
common usage of the Greek language. If applied to breath, 
it would signify a multitude of breathings, or breathing in- 
definitely extended; and if applied to simple existence, it 
would signify existence indefinitely extended." Other schol- 
ars suggest aia, the earth, or world, and on, a participle of 
eimi, to exist, as its source. 

"We submit the following derivation of aion, to which we 
invite the scrutiny of scholars: — In Greek a noun with ac- 
cented omega (long o) in the last syllable of the nominative 
case singular, signifies a container; that is, the on indicates 
that the preceding syllable is contained in it. Thus, a Greek's 
loutr-dn is his bath-place ; a dendr-dn is his grove-place ; a 
rhod-dn is his rose-place, etc. An aion is, therefore, some- 
thing that contains an aei, or aia — a something containing 
the earth, aia', or duration, aei; or breathings, ad; existence, 
life; — duration, signified by breathings, is perhaps the best 
etymology of the word. 

President N. White, Ph.D., 5 of Lombard University, Illinois, 

3 Christian Examiner, Vol. X., p. 42. He quotes the ancient Phavorinus 
as denning it thus : "The comprehension of many times or periods." 

4 Christian Examiner, Vols. X., XI., XIII. 

5 For valuable assistance on this point, we are indebted to President N. 
White, Ph. D., of Lombard University, Galesburg, 111., who, when this book 
first appeared, had already accumulated a large amount; of material for a 
similar work. 



ETYMOLOGY. 19 

one of the best philologists living, has placed us under obliga- 
tions by furnishing the following etymological description of 
the word, tracing it back to remote periods, far antecedent to 
its appearance in the Greek language. 

The genesis of a\uv seems to be the despair of etymol- 
ogists. We have neither time nor space to enter into a de- 
tailed discussion of the particular points on which philologists 
differ, nor is such discussion needed to obtain a tolerably cor- 
rect notion of the primitive meaning of the word. Passing 
by the absurd views and discussions of the old school of phil- 
ologists, we shall attempt to present, in the briefest possible 
way, the best results of the most eminent of comparative phil- 
ologists of the present day, respecting this word, so replete 
with historical and moral interest. 

We begin, then, with the supposititious form of the old 
Aryan, or mother-tongue, whence aluv is derived. Here the 
ground-form of this word appears as the verbal root, i, to go. 
This root, by a jjrocess called strengthening, (in Sanscrit 
vriddhi), becomes di. This strengthened form takes the suffix, 
-van-. Now, if the suffix vat be, as suggested by Oppert, 6 
but another form of -van- then the original signification 
of the suffix will be, he that, and the complete form ai-van- 
will mean (since the word is of the masculine gender), he that 
moves or goes; since va originally meant "is, ea, id," emd-t 
(the residuum of the demonstrative pronoun ta), this or that. 
It may be remarked that the Gothic ai-va (in the nominative 
masculine aivs) closely resembles the hypothetical ai-van. 

In the Sanscrit cva-sy?e have (speaking chronologi- 
cally), the oldest form in which the word actually occurs in 
written language. Here the secondary suffix ta seems to be 
supplanted by the gender sign - s, which is doubtless a resid- 
uum of the Sanscrit third personal pronoun. 

The meaning of eva-s in the Sanscrit is (logically) re- 
moved but a step from the original signification of the word 
in the old Aryan. Curtius gives as the meaning in the singular, 

6 Sanscrit Gram. p. 233. 



20 AION-AIONIOS. 

"course," "conduct," and in the plural, "custom," "manners.'* 
Zehetmayr agrees with Curtius. 7 It is evident, also, that 
Trench' regards this meaning as inherent in the Greek ai6v, 
since he has made it the basis of his excellent remarks upon 
the word. 8 

It is an interesting fact that, philologically speaking, aevum 
the form which the word assumes in Latin, is older than the 
Greek aluv. Aevu-m (later form of aevo-m) is clearly the Latin 
representative of the neuter of the Sanscrit eva - s, the e taking 
(as usual) the form ae. 

The original signification of the word in Latin seems to 
be "life", "time of life;" it sometimes means "old age." 9 ' It 
may not be out of place to remark that "per aevom," in Lu- 
cretius, 10 is often quoted as signifying endless duration. An 
acquaintance with the views of Lucretius, as well as a care- 
ful reading of the context, will show, we think, that the ex- 
pression cannot so be interpreted. Besides, Lucretius is 
comparatively a late writer. 

The form in which this word appears in Greek need not 
now detain us long. In the ante-classical period of Grecian 
literature it was undoubtedly written nlFuv. Eeferring 
again to the Indo-European, or supposititious ai-va-n, it will 
suffice to say that the Greek al - is the undoubted representa- 
tive of the old ai-, — that the digamma F represents the v of 
the old Aryan — that the w is the proper representative of d 
(long) in the primitive speech, and that the Greek v is the 
old n. It would seem, then, that the original signification of 
ah'jv, certainly the signification which best accords with the 
etymology, is the "principle of life," or "the strength of life." 
In this sense it occurs in Pindar, u where aluv Ss 61 bariuv is 
rendered by Kuhnken medulla per ossa diffusa, L e., the 
marrow. Erotianus 12 defines al6v as 6 vunalog fivs^og, or "the 
spinal marrow." 

~ Lex. Etymol., p. 12. « Syn. N. T., Vol. II., pp. 35, 6. 

» Eun. in Gell. 12., 2, 3 ; Plin. Pan. 78. 2. etc. 

io I. 952, Bernaysius's ed. n Fragments, 77, Donaldson's ed. 

12 Glossary of Hippocrates. 



ETYMOLOGY. 21 

Eeminding the reader that we speak logically and not 
chronologically, we may say that the word is used by Homer 
in a less primitive sense than in Pindar, or in Hippocrates. 
In the Iliad and the Odyssey it occurs in the sense of "hu- 
man life," "time of life," etc., as scores of passages abund- 
antly attest. 

We have only space to add that Pott, Benfey, and some 
other philologists, would connect aluv with the Sanscrit dy-us 
or dj-ux, which means, as an adjective, "living," as a masculine 
substantive, (pronounced oxytone), "man"; and when pro- 
nounced baritone, "time of life." 13 Since, however, most 
philologists agree in referring both e-va-s and. dy-us to 
the primitive root i, any discussion of the etymology of the 
latter may be pronounced unnecessary. 14 

As we have already observed, the etymology of the word 
is not decisive in determining its meaning, but this learned 
exposition by President White will deeply interest the scholar. 
It re'enforces and confirms our theory that continuous but 
limited, or indefinite duration, is the grammatical, etymological 
and logical signification of the word. 

And yet Dr. Adam Clarke says "there is no word which 
more forcibly points out the grand characteristic of eternity, 
. . . endless is its grammatical meaning, and all others are 
accommodated." This dictum, once apparently accurate, is now 
seen to be contradicted by the etymology of the word, by the 
lexicons, which give endless as only one of many meanings, 
and as we shall subsequently show, by the general usage of 



« Etymol. Vol. II., p. 4S1. 

I* The reader who wishes to form independent conclusions on the ety- 
mology and primitive meaning of aluv may consult the following works, 
viz :— Ferrar's Comp. Gram, of Sanscrit, Greek and Latin, pp. 179, 198, et 
passim; Curtius' Greek Etymology, passim; Schleicher's Compendium der 
Vergl.Grammatik der Indogermanischen Sprachen, pp. 39S-9 etpassim; Pott's 
Etymologische Forschungen, Vol. II., 2., p. 442 ; Benfey's Griechisches Wurz- 
ellexicon.Vol. I., p. 8 ; Schmidt's Synonymik der Griech. Spr.,Vol. II., p. 54, ff ; 
Bopp's Glossarium Comparativum Linguae Sanscritae, pp. 37, 41 ; Kuhn's 
Zeitschrift fur Vergl. Sprachforschung, Vol. II., p. 232, ff ; and the works of 
Max Miiller, Donelson, Peile, Sayce, and many others. 



22 AION-AIONIOS. 

the word. Dr. Clarke follows the generally received etymol- 
ogy of the word, as it has been supposed that Aristotle gives it, 
who has been thought to have derived it from a combination 
of aei on, always-existing. 1 ? As there has been no little 
controversy on this famous passage, we will give the original 
and three translations. Aristotle says : 16 

Qavepbv dpa on ovre tottoq^ oiire tcevbv, ovre XP° V0 Q sgtIv k^co-dev. dtoirep 
ovt ev tottg) tclkeI TteyvKEVj ovts XP° V0 £ o,vra Ttoiel yripacKZLv, ovd" kcrlv 
ovtievbg ovdspia uzrafiokr) rtiv VTrb rrjv e^iordru reraypihov (popaVj aXK' 
avaKKoLura nal arra&r)^ ryv apiarrjv exovra fav v Ka ^ r V v avTapneoTdrr/v 
diareTiel rbv airavra auova' nal yap rovro rovvojua ^slog efi&eyKrai izapa, 
to)v apxaiuv. rb yap t&oq rb 7repisx ov r ° v T V~ sudarov ^o)r)g XP° V0V \ ov 
[xrjdev e^co Kara (pvaiv, aitov Ikcigtov neti/ir/Tai. Kara rbv avrbv 6s Tioyov 
nal rb rov rravrbg ovpavov ri/iog, not rb rbv tt&vtov aTretpov xpbvov x a ^ T V V 
aiTEipiav TcepL£x ov TeAoc, al6v eonv, arco tov del elvai ellr/Qug rr)v kw- 
vvfiiav, d-d-dvarog nal -delog. 

Professor J. R. Boise, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Greek 
in Morgan Park Theological Institution, gives this translation 
of the passage : 17 

"It is plain, therefore, that there is neither space, nor void 
nor time beyond. Wherefore, the things there are not by nature 
in space, nor does time make them grow old, nor is there any 
change in any one of those things placed beyond the outer- 
most sweep (or current) ; but, unchangeable and without pas- 
sion, having the best and most sufficient life, they continue 
through all eternity (aion) ; for this name (i. e., aion) has 
been divinely uttered by the ancients. For the definite 
period (to telos), which embraces the time of the life of each 
individual, to whom, according to nature, there can be noth- 
ing beyond, has been called each one's eternity (aion). And, 
by parity of reasoning, the definite period also of the en- 
tire heaven, even the definite period embracing the infinite 

i» Bass, Greek and Eng. Lex., London, 1820 ; Grove, Greek and Eng. Diet., 
Boston, 1833 ; Parkhurst, Greek and Eng. Lex., London, 1822, and Dr. A. 
Clarke, follow Aristotle. 

leDeCoslolib. I.c.9. " Chicago Tribune, 1874, quoted by C. H.Keed. 



ETYMOLOGY. 



23 



time of all things and infinity, is an eternity {aion), im- 
mortal and divine, having received the appellation (eternity, 
aion) from the fact that it exists always (apo ton aei einai)" 
The reader of this translation is able to see how easily the 
scholar may be lost in the theologian. Prof. Boise insists 
that aion means eternity, and yet he is forced to apply it to a 
human life, which Aristotle expressly says is one's aion! 

Indeed, we cannot read this translation without perceiv- 
ing that a pre-conceived theory so colors the author's philo- 
logical judgment, as to render his statements the speculations 
of a theologian wedded to a system, rather than the judicial 
utterances of a Greek scholar, anxious solely for the truth. 
To say that aion in this passage should be rendered eternity, 
is, as this volume will demonstrate to the least learned reader, 
entirely contrary to the fact. 

Dr. Edward Beecher gives the following translation 19 of 
the controverted sentence: — "On the same principle, the 
boundaries of all the heavens, and the boundary that incloses 
and comprehends all time and space, is aion, a continuous 
existence, immortal and divine, deriving its name from ael 
elvai, to exist continuously." He adds: — "From the time 
of Homer to Plato and Aristotle, about five centuries, the 
word aion is used by poets and historians alongside of various 
compounds of aei ; but it is never spelled as if it were a com- 
pound of aei, for the compounds of aei retain the diphthong 
ei, but aion drops the e. There is a verb aid — to breathe, to 
live. The passage of Aristotle in which his etymology occurs 
has been mistranslated, for it does not give the etymology 
of the abstract idea eternity, but of the concrete idea God, 
as an ever-existing person, from whom all other personal be- 
ings derived existence and life. What Aristotle has been sup- 
posed to assert of aion, in the sense of eternity, he asserts of 
aion in the sense of God, a living and divine person. That 
the word aion in classic Greek sometimes denotes God, is dis- 

18 Chicago Inter-Ocean, Jan., 1878. ^History Fut. Ret., p. 130. 



24: AION-AIONIOS. 

tinctly stated in Henry Stephens' great lexicon (Paris edi- 
tion), and the passage referred to in Sophocles 20 fully author- 
izes his .statement. In that passage Jupiter is called 'Aion, 
(the living God,) the Son of Kronos.' Moreover, the whole 
context of Aristotle proves that he is speaking of the great 
immovable first mover of the universe, the Aion, immortal 
and divine." 

This view of the language is a reasonable one, and certain- 
ly an accurate rendering of Aristotle's language does not give 
any color to the common view of Aristotle's meaning. To show 
that this is true we will give a literal translation of the pas- 
sage : — "It is, therefore, evident that there is no space, vacu- 
um or time beyond [the heaven]. Wherefore, the things 
there are unadapted to space, nor does time age them ; and 
they are placed beyond the utmost sweep of change; and 
changeless, passionless, they, having the best and sufficient 
life, remain through all duration (aion), for truly this word 
was divine according to the ancients. For the completeness 
which comprehends the time of each one's life, to which, 
according to nature, there is nothing beyond, has been called 
his being (aion). For the same reason the completeness of 
the whole heaven, even the infinite completeness of all things, 
and the . period including that infinity, is also an aion, 
deriving its name from aei einai, continual being, immortal, 
divine." 

This passage from Aristotle is obscure, and if he were 
authority it would not settle the question of the meaning of 
the word. If we adopt the theory that aion had the pri- 
mary meaning of continuous existence, such being the signi- 
fication of aei and on, there is no warrant even in such an 
origin for ascribing to it duration without end. But Aristotle 
does not say or intimate that the word had the meaning of 
eternity in his day, nor does his statement of its derivation 
prove that it had that meaning then. On the contrary, Aris- 

20 Herac. 900. 



ETYMOLOGY. 25 

totle's use of the word, as we show clearly, 21 proves that it had 
no such meaning in his mind, even if it is compounded of aei 
and on. Thus on, being, from eimi, to be, and aei, from a 
intensive, and eo, to be : — a augments, and has the force of 
very. Aei, long period, and on only adds being to it. Ety- 
mologically, long time is the utmost force of aei. Parkhurst 
says, "Aei signifies (1) always, as Acts, vii: 51; II Cor. vi: 10. 
(2) Always, ever, in restrained sense, as in Mark xv : 8. (3) Very 
frequently continually, as in I Pet. iii : 15; II Pet. i : 12. The 
sense of on is easily ascertained. In John ix : 25, 'being (on) 
blind.' John viii:47, 'is (on) of God.' John xviii:37, 'is 
(on) of the truth.' On denotes simple being or existence." 
The sense of eimi is equally easy to learn. In John vii: 33, 
it is rendered am; also in Matt, xviii: 20, and I Cor. ix:l. 
Aei in II Cor. vi : 10, and Acts vi : 10, is mere continuity. It 
is impossible to evolve endless duration from the word. In- 
definite duration, determined by the connection, is the utmost 
meaning, etymologically. 

The word aei, from which axon is claimed to grow, is 
found eight times in the New Testament, and in no one in- 
stance does it mean endless. 22 We give two texts. The mul- 
titude desired Pilate to release a prisoner, Mark xv : 8, 'Ms he 
had ever done with them." Heb. iii: 10, "They do always 
err in their heart." An endless duration growing out of a 
word used thus would be a curiosity. It is alway or always, 
or ever, in each text. Liddell and Scott give more than fifty 
compounds of aei. Now, if aion depends on aei as its first 
member, the meaning must necessarily be limited duration. 
In the eight times of its occurrence in the New Testament it 
has not the remotest reference to endless duration. 

Cleanthes, the poet, in a hymn to Jove, sings, "For thus 
thou hast united the good with the evil in one scheme, that 
one constant principle of reason may be in all, whence those 



21 See Classic Usage. 

22 Mark xv : 8 ; Acts vii : 51 ; II Cor. iv: 2 ; vi : 10 ; Titus i : 12 ; Heb. iii : 10 ; 
I Pet. iii: 15: II Pet. i: 12. 



26 AION-AIONIOS. 

among mortals who are wicked, ill-starred, are endeavoring to 
escape, because, indeed, continually coveting the property of 
the good, they neither obey the common law of God, nor 
listen to it ; by obeyingit they might enjoy a happy existence 
with you." 23 Eusebius 24 declares that the darkness pre- 
ceding creation was infinite, and had no limit for a long time, 
(polun aiona). 

Three times it is used in the Alcestis of Euripides, and 
fourteen times in the Dialogues of Lucian, without denoting 
endless in a single instance. In Aristotle aei occurs thus : 2 ' 

Ai&epa Tcpoaovo/Liaoav rbv dvurdru tottov, anb rov t&eIv (del rbv aidiov 
Xp6vov, -&ep.evoL H/v srrcovvulav avru. 

Thus "the highest iEther," which runs on "continuously/'' 
{aei) needs "eternal time" (a'idion kronon) attached to it to 
give it the meaning of everlasting; aei, as Aristotle under- 
stood the word, being inadequate to convey that meaning. 

Concerning Aristotle's famous sentence, "Life, an aion 
continuous and eternal," it is enough to say that if aion in- 
trinsically meant endless, Aristotle never would have sought 
to strengthen its meaning by adding "continuous" and "eter- 
nal," any more than one would say, God has an eternity con- 
tinuous and endless. He has a life, an existence, i. e., an aion, 
endless, just as man's aion on earth is limited ; just as Idu- 
mea's smoke in the Old Testament is aionios. Nor, had 
Aristotle considered aion to mean eternity, would he have 
said in this very passage, "the time of the life of each indi- 
vidual has been called his aion" Cremer, Liddell and Scott, 
Donnegan, and Henry Stephens adopt the Aristotleian origin 
of the word. Grimm rejects it, and Robinson in his latest 

23 '12 Se yap e\q iv ndvra cwrjp^ioKaq kadla Kanolatv 
'&0-&' eva ylyvecftai tt&vtuv Tibyov alsv eovra' 
'Ov (pevyovreq sgxjlv, dam ■&vt]tg)V nanoid eici, 
Avcfiopoi, o'lf ayaduv fiev aei kttjolv tto&eovtec, 
Ovt" kcopcbai -&EOV kolvov vop.ov, ovre kTlvovgiv, 

'Q KEV TTSld-OjUEVOl OVV VU fitOV Ecftlbv e%Ol£V. 

24 Praep. Evang. lib. I. cap. 10. See Grotius, De. Verit. lib. I. 
25 DeCcelo,lib.I.c. 3. 



ETYMOLOGY. 27 

edition gives both etymologies without deciding between 
them. Stephens says : — "Aristotle, and after him many other 
philosophers, as Plotinus and Proems, introduced the etymol- 
ogy of a Ion from a ei, and thus added the idea of eternity to 
the word." Damm, in his "Lexicon and Yirtual Concordance 
of Homer," gives the meaning of aei thus: — "Ever, always, 
perpetually, constantly. It does not always denote duration 
to infinity, but often continuity of action in a small space of 
time, or assiduous and earnest action in a limited time, or fre- 
quent, or oft-repeated, or habitual action. Often aei is 
completed on the same day." . . Aion "denotes properly 
the whole duration of the lif e of man, the duration of mortal 
life. Hence, to finish one's aion is to die. The words aei 
on denote existing perpetually, and without any intermission, 
until the end comes." 

Beecher observes, 20 "If the etymology of Aristotle were 
to be accepted, it is not at all decisive of the question ; for the 
word aei does not always or even commonly denote or imply 
eternity. Any careful study of the word aei will show that, 
singly or in compounds, it does not always denote or even 
imply eternity, but more frequently continuityof being. . . . 
It was Pilate's usage to release yearly unto the Jews one 
prisoner. The mob, therefore, desired him to do as he had ever 
{aei) done unto them, not to or from eternity, but as an annual 
usage." 

But we may hold with Dr. Beecher that the famous pas- 
sage in Aristotle refers to God (apo toil aei einai) and not to 
abstract duration. We have shown that aei is never used in 
the sense of endless. We shall prove that Aristotle himself 
uniformly used the word in the sense of limited duration, and, 
under the head of Classic Usage, will hereafter prove that at 
the time the Old Testament was rendered into Greek, this 
was the only meaning the word had with every Greek writer. 
If aei on is its source, which is more than doubtful, it can- 
not mean more than continuous existence, the precise length 

26 Hist. 1'ut. Ret., pp. 127-8. 



28 AION-AIONIOS. 

to be determined by accompanying words. Adopt either 
derivation, and indefinite duration is the easy and natural ety- 
mological , meaning. Eternity can only be expressed by it 
when it is accompanied by other words, carrying the meaning 
of endless duration, as the name of Deity. 

All will agree that words may change their meaning, and 
therefore that etymology is at best an uncertain guide. If 
etymology point in one direction, and usage in another, the 
former must yield ; but if both utter one fact, each reenf orces 
and strengthens the other. This we have illustrated by the ety- 
mology of prevent. Hundreds of words teach the same truth. 
Words start out with certain meanings, and change in process 
of time. If alon really meant eternity when it was first pro- 
nounced, it would not follow that it had this meaning later. That 
it had not that meaning at first would not hinder it from being 
thus used subsequently, Etymology proves nothing one way or 
the other — its evidence is but prima facie. But etymology 
gives no warrant for applying the idea of eternity to the word. 

Many critics have proceeded on the ground that Aris- 
totle's etymology is authoritative. But nothing is further 
from the truth. The scholarship of to-day, possessed by an 
average philologist, is far more competent to trace this or any 
Greek word to its real source, than Plato or Aristotle was able 
to do. In his analysis of Plato's Cratylus, Grote 27 observes of 
Plato's etymologies : — "Though sometimes reasonable enough, 
they are in a far greater number of instances forced, arbi- 
trary, and fanciful. The transitions of meaning imagined, 
and the structural transformations of words, are alike strange 
and violent. Such is the light in which these Platonic ety- 
mologies appear to a modern critic. But such was not the 
light in which they appeared either to the ancient Platonists, 
or critics earlier than the last century. The Platonists even 
thought them full of mysterious and recondite wisdom. So 
complete has been the revolution of opinion that the Platonic 
etymologies are now treated by most critics as too absurd to 

27 Vol.IL. pp. 5C0-550. 



ETYMOLOGY. 29 

have been seriously intended by Plato, even as conjectures. 
It is called * a valuable discovery of modern times ' 28 that 
Plato meant most of them as mere parody and caricature." 
The character of Aristotle as an etymologist is no better, as 
stated by Grote: — "Nor are they more absurd than many of 
the etymologies proposed by Aristotle." A slender hook this, 
whereon to hang such a doctrine as that of the immortal wo 
of countless millions of souls ! 

The conclusions which any judicial mind must reach from 
the foregoing considerations are these : — 1, It is not certain 
from what source the word a ion sprang; 2, It is of no vital 
consequence how it originated ; 3, Aristotle's opinion is not 
authority; and 4, It is probable that he was not denning the 
word, but was alluding to that being whose aion, or existence, 
is continuous and eternal. That he did not understand 
that aion signified eternity, is evident from his uniform use 
of the word, in the sense of limited duration. And we find 
no reason in its etymology for giving it the sense of endless du- 
ration. And if it did thus originate, it does not afford a par- 
ticle of proof that it was subsequently used with that mean- 
ing. It is only interesting, but never authoritative as to the 
meaning of a word, to ascertain its etymology. Usage is the 
only tribunal from which there can be no appeal. 29 



28 Schleiermacher. 

29 Having read the foregoing chapter in type, Dr. White adds :— "In my 
etymology of aluv, I showed that the primitive signification is 'that -which 
goes, or moves.' In what I regard the most primitive meaning of the word 
in Greek, (namely, 'principle of life'), we find that the earliest meaning in 
Greek is really the cause of the old meaning (that which goes) ; this is the 
principle of connection between the two meanings. Again, the meaning, 
(3d step) 'life,' is the necessary result of the possession of the 'principle of 
life.' The next meaning in order ('time of a human life'), is but the natural 
extension of the preceding, hence 'age, "acres of ages,' etc., follow in nat- 
ural order. Finally we see why the exact meaning of aitov must be deter- 
mined by that to which it is applied, since the time or duration of the motion 
of any body or thing is of tenest determined by the thing itself, e. g., the dura- 
tion of motion of the heavenly bodies must be quite different from that of a 
bird in flight. If an adjective derives none of its meaning from the noun, 
what shall we say of a 'tender plant' and a 'tender heart?' " 



LEXICOGRAPHY. 



"We now appeal to the lexicons and critics. But lexicog- 
raphy must be consulted concerning controverted words, cum 
grano sails. A theologian is quite certain to shade or color 
his definitions of technical words with his own beliefs, to 
lean one way or the other according to his own predilec- 
tions, and tincture his definitions with his idiosyncrasies. With 
this thought in mind, let us consult the principal lexicogra- 
phers, theologians, scholars, and Biblical critics who have ex- 
plored the word. Those we shall quote comprise the most 
eminent of all who have testified on the subject, and present 
the sense which the word has been supposed to convey. 

Theodoret, 1 (A. D. 300-400,) defines aion as "not any 
existing thing, but an interval denoting time, sometimes 
infinite, when spoken of God, sometimes proportioned to the 
duration of the creation, and sometimes to the life of man." 
At this early date the word certainly denoted limited du- 
ration. 

Hesychius, 2 (A. D. 400-600,) defines aion thus: — 
"The life of man, the time of life. Euripides says life is aion" 
At this date no theologian had imported into the word the 
meaning of endless duration. It retained only the sense it 
had in the Classics, and in the Bible. 

John of Damascus. This writer, (A. D. 750,) is one 
of the most eminent. Neander calls his "Accurate Expo- 

i In Migne, Vol. IV., p. 40. 

2 AI(jv, 6 6iog Tuv av&ptJTrov, 6 rfjq £wsyf xpovog .... ~EhpLTddr}(; 6e 
fyilonTrjTri, Aitiva rrp> ipvxijv ^yu- Here one Greek quotes from another,— 
the most valuable testimony possible. 



LEXICOGEAPHY. 31 

sition of the Orthodox Faith," "the most important doc- 
trinal text-book of the Greek church." He says: — "We 
should know that the word aion has many significations. 
For, 1. The life of every man is called aion. 2. Again, 
the period of 1000 years is called aion. 3. Again, the 
whole duration or life of this world is called aion, and, 
4. The endless lif e after the resurrection is called the a ion 
to come." Again: — "There are aions of a ions. Since the 
seven aions of this present world include many aions or 
lives of men, and that great aion of the world includes them 
all, and the present aion and the aion to come is called the 
aion of the aion; the expressions aionian life (i. e., life of 
the world to come,) and aionian punishment, (i. e., punish- 
ment of the world to come,) disclose the endlessness of the 
coming aionr "Hence," says Beecher, from whom we quote, 3 
"the idea of eternity is not in the word aionios, but is de- 
rived from the endlessness of the 6u'o?i which it designates. 
. . . To designate the idea endless he does not here use 
aionios, but aperantos." 

Zonar, a lexicographer of the eleventh century, defines 
aion as "a natural system of diverse bodies, embracing a 
logical distinction, for the sake of knowledge of God." 

In the sixteenth century Phavorinus was compelled 
to notice an addition, which subsequently to the time of the 
famous Council of 544 had been grafted on the word. He 

says : 4 — "Aion, time, also life, also way of life 

Aion is also the eternal and endless as it seems to the theo- 
logian." Theologians had succeeded in using the word with 



3Hist.Fut.Eet., p. 292. 

4 A/wy, 6 xP° vo Si Kai V C 6 ^ Kat o j&'of . . 

Aiyerac ml avrl ~s C,or]. "O/z^pof, eireird fie ml ?^lkoc aluv, i/yow {,(jrj. 

rj aluv £oy "AMiUQ ■ 

AlcjVi f] lu>rj d^AVKUQ . "Ofiyjpoq, Avrbg 6k (pi?^g aluvog afiepd-eig. napa 
to aeiv to Tzveecv- ml ai^jxa, to Trvevfia- • .... ml efnrvow 6e 

tov {uvtcl da/uev aluv, ml 6 aidiog ml aTzktvTriToq, 

<5f Tui Qeoloyu Soksi- 



32 AION-AIONIOS. 

the sense of endless, and Phavorinus was forced to recognize 
their usage of it, and his phraseology shows conclusively 
enough that he attributed to theologians the authorship of a 
new use of the word. ' Alluding to this definition, Rev. Ezra 
S. Goodwin, one of the ripest scholars and profoundest critics, 
says : 5 — "Here, I strongly suspect, is the true secret brought to 
light of the origin of the sense of eternity in a Ion. The theo- 
logian first thought he perceived it, or else he placed it 
there. The theologian keeps it there, now. And the theolo- 
gian will probably retain it there longer than any one else. 
Hence it is that those lexicographers who assign eternity as 
one of the meanings of aion uniformly appeal for proofs ,to 
either theological, Hebrew, or Rabbinical Greek, or some spe- 
cies of Greek subsequent to the age of the Seventy, if not sub- 
sequent to the age of the Apostles, so far as I can ascertain." 
The second definition, by Phavorinus, is extracted literally 
from the "Etymologicon Magnum" of the ninth or tenth cen- 
tury. This gives us the usage from the fourth to the sixteenth 
century, and shows us that if the word meant endless at the 
time of Christ, it must have changed from limited duration in 
the Classics, to unlimited duration, and then back again, at the 
dates above specified ! From the sixteenth century onward, 
the word has been defined as used to denote all lengths of 
duration from brief to endless. "We record here some of the 
definitions we have found : 

Host, (German definitions) : — "Aion, duration, epoch, long 
time, eternity, memory of man, life-time, life, age of man. 
Aidnios, continual, always enduring, long continued, eternal." 

Hedericus : ° — "An age, eternity, an age as if always being; 
life, time of man's life, in the memory of men (wicked men — 
New Testament), the spinal marrow. Aionios, eternal, ever- 
lasting, continual." 7 



5 Chris. Exam., Vol. X. vf 6 Boston, 1833. 

IJEvum, ceternitas; secuhim, quasi aeiov > vita, tempus vitcn hominis, hominum 
memoria, (improbi homines, New Testament), spince medulla. Aidnios, ozturnus, 
sempiturnus, perennis. 



LEXICOGRAPHY. 33 

Schleusner: — "Any space of time, whether longer or. 
shorter, past, present or future, to be determined by the 
persons or things spoken of, and the scope of the subjects; 
the life or age of man. AiOnids, a definite and long period 
of time ; that is, a long enduring, but still definite period of 
time." 

Passow: — "Aionios, long continued, eternal, everlasting, 
in the Classics." 

Grove : 8 — "Eternity ; an age, lif e, duration, continuance of 
time ; a revolution of ages, a dispensation of Providence ; this 
world or life; the world or life to come. Aionios, eternal, 
immortal, perpetual, former, past, ancient." 

Donnegan: 9 — "Time; a space of time ; life-time and life; 
the ordinary period of man's lif e ; the age of man ; man's es- 
tate; a long period of time; eternity; the spinal marrow. 
Ms ton aiona, to a very long period, to eternity. Ap aionos, 
from or in the memory of man. Aionios, of long duration, 
lasting, eternal, permanent." 

Ewing : — " Duration, finite or infinite ; a period of dura- 
tion, past or future ; an age ; duration of the world ; ages of 
the world ; human lif e in this world, or the next ; our manner 
of life in the world ; an age of divine dispensation ; the ages, 
generally reckoned three — that before the law, that under the 
law, and that under the Messiah. Aionios (from preceding), 
ages of the world, periods of the dispensations since the world 
began." 

Schrevelius : 10 — "An age, a long period of time ; indefinite 
duration, time, whether longer or shorter, past, present or 
future ; also, in the New Testament, the wicked men of the 
age, and also in the feminine gender, life, the life of man. 
Aionios, of long duration, lasting, sometimes everlasting, 
sometimes lasting through life, as ceturnus in Latin." 

Dr. Taylor, who wrote the Hebrew Bible three times 
with his own hand, says of olam (Greek aion), it signifies a 



« Boston, 1833. 9 Pbila., 1820. ™ New York, 1832. 

3 






34 AION-AIONIOS. 

duration which is concealed, as being of an unknown or great 
length. "It signifies eternity, not from the proper force of 
the word, but when the sense of the place or the nature of the 
subject requires it, as "God and his attributes." 

Autenrieth, in his Homeric Dictionary, thus defines the 
word as Homer uses it: — " alLv , tivoc, 6, (j, X 58), (acFuv, 
aevum), lifetime, A 478, I 415 ; life, anima, T 27, X 58 ; with 
ipvxv, 11453, *523. 

Pickering: — "An age, along period of time, indefinite du- 
ration, a man's life-time, (Eurip.), life, (iEschylus), time. Ap 
aidnos, from or in the memory of man. Els ton aiona, for 
a long time, forever, everlasting; time whether longer, or 
shorter, past, present or future. Also, in New Testament, the 
present age, or, men of the age, including the idea of their 
corruption or depravity; the age to come, the reign of the 
Messiah, the life of man, the spinal marrow. Aionios, of 
long duration, lasting, sometimes everlasting, perpetual, eter- 
nal, sometimes lasting through life, as wturnus in Latin." 

Liddell and Scott : — "A space of time, a Hfe-time, life, also 
one's time of life, age, the age of man, young in age, for one's 
life long, an age, generation, one's lot in life, a long space of 
time, eternity, forever; and in plural, eis tous aionas ton 
aionon, unto ages of ages, forever and ever, a space of time 
clearly defined and marked out, an era, age, period of a dis- 
pensation, this present life, this world, the world, the spinal 
marrow." 

Hincks : — "A period of time ; an age, an after time, eter- 
nity. Aionios, lasting, eternal, of old, since the beginning." 

Lutz: — "An age, time, eternity. Aionios, durable, 
eternal." 

Macknight, 11 (Scotch Presbyterian): — "These words be- 
ing ambiguous, are always to be understood according to the 
nature and circumstances to which they are applied." He 
thinks the words sustain endless punishment, but adds : — "At 
the same time I must be so candid as to acknowledge that the 

ii Truth of Gospel Hist., p. 28. 



LEXICOGKAPHY. 35 

use of these terms, forever, eternal and everlasting, in other 
passages of Scripture, shows that they who understand these 
words in a limited sense, when applied to punishment, put 
no forced interpretation upon them." 

Wright : — "Time, age, lif e-time, period, revolution of ages, 
dispensation of Providence, present world, or life, world to 
come, eternity. Aionios, eternal, ancient." 

Kobinson: — "Life, also, an age, that is, an indefinite 
long period of time, perpetuity, ever, forever, eternity, eis 
ton aiona, ever, forever, without end, to the remotest time, 
forever and ever, of old, from everlasting, the world, present 
or future, this world and the next, present world, men of this 
world, world itself, advent of Messiah. Aionios, perpetual, 
everlasting, eternal, chiefly spoken of future time, ancient." 

Jones: 12 — "An everlasting age, eternity, eternal, forever, a 
period of time, age, lif e, the present world, or life ; the Jewish 
dispensation ; a good demon, angel, as supposed to exist for- 
ever. . . Aionios, everlasting, ancient." Schweighseuser 
and Valpley 13 substantially agree. 

Cruden : 14 — " The words eternal, everlasting, forever, are 
sometimes taken for a long time, and are not always to be 
understood strictly: for example, 'Thou shalt be our guide 
from this time forth, even forever,' that is, during our whole 
life." 

Alexander Campbell: — "Its radical idea is indefinite 
duration." 

"Whitby: — "Nothing is more common and familiar in 
Scripture than to render a thorough and irreparable vasta- 
tion, whose effects and signs should be still remaining, by the 
word aionios, which we render eternal." Hammond, Benson 
and Gilpin, in notes on Jude 7, say substantially the same. 

Pearce (on Matt. 7 : 33) says : — " The Greek word aion 
seems to signify age here, as it often does in the New Testa- 
ment, and according to its most proper signification." Clarke, 
Giles, Wakefield, Boothroyd, Simpson, Lindsey, Mardon and 

12 2d ed., London. 1825. " London, — . « Concordance. 



36 AION-AIONIOS. 

Acton, agree. So do Locke, Hammond, Le Clerc, Beausobre, 
Lenfant, Doddridge, Paulus, Kenrick and Olshausen." 15 

T. Southwood Smith : 16 — " Sometimes it signifies the term 
of human life ; at other times an age, or dispensation of Prov- 
idence. Its most common signification is that of age or dis- 
pensation." 

Scarlett: — "That aionion does not mean endless or eter- 
nal may appear from considering that no adjective can have 
a greater force than the noun from which it is derived. If 
aion means age (which none either will or can deny), then 
aiOnion must mean age-lasting, or duration through the age 
or ages to which the thing spoken of relates." 

Even Professor Stuart is obliged to say: 17 — The most 
common and appropriate meaning of aion in the New Testa- 
ment, and the one which corresponds with the Hebrew word 
olam, and which, therefore, deserves the first rank in regard to 
order, I put down first : an indefinite period of time ; time 
without limitation ; ever, forever, time without end, eternity, 
all in relation to future time. The different shades by which 
the word is rendered, depend on the object with which aion 
is associated, or to which it has relation, rather than to any 

difference in the real meaning of the word The 

question when the words are to have the meaning of absolute 
eternity, or when the sense of ancient, or very old, is always 
to be determined by the nature of the case, i. e., by the con- 
text." 

Maclaine : 18 — "The word aion or aeon is commonly used 
among Greek writers, but in different senses. Its significa- 
tion in the Gnostic system is not very evident, and several 
learned men have despaired of finding out its true meaning. 
Aion or aeon among the ancients was used to signify the age 

* 5 Eternity is not given at all as a proper definition of the word by 
Schweighseuser, Valpley, Pickering, or Schrevelius. Age is the primary 
meaning, according to Schrevelius, Hedericus, Lutz and Pickering. 

i 6 Divine Goodness. 

17 Letters to Miller, p. 128. Exegetical Essays, sec. 4, Meaning of Aion. 

isMaclaine's Mosheim. 



LEXICOGRAPHY. 37 

of man, or the duration of human life. In after times it was 
employed by philosophers to express the duration of spiritual 
and invisible beings." 

Dr. Edward Beecher 19 remarks: — "It commonly means 
merely continuity of action. . . . All attempts to set forth 
eternity as the original and primary sense of a ion are at war 
with the facts of the Greek language for five centuries, in 
which it denoted life and its derivative senses, and the sense 
of eternity was unknown." And he also says, what is the un- 
doubted fact, "that the original sense of aion is not eternity. 
. . . It is conceded on all hands that this (life) was origi- 
nally the general use of the word. In the Paris edition of 
Henry Stephens' Lexicon it is affirmed emphatically 'that 
life, or the space of life, is the primitive sense of the word, 
and that it is always so used by Homer, Hesiod, and the old 
poets; also by Pindar and the tragic writers, as well as by 
Herodotus and Xenophon.' 'Pertaining to the world to 
come,' is the sense given to ' These shall go away into ever- 
lasting punishment,' by Prof. Tayler Lewis, who adds, 20 — ' The 
preacher in contending with the Universalist and the Eestora- 
tionist, would commit an error, and it may be suffer a failure 
in his argument, should he lay the whole stress of it on the 
etymological or historical significance of the words aion, 
aiOnios, and attempt to prove that of themselves they neces- 
sarily carry the meaning of endless duration. ' These shall go 
away into the restraint, imprisonment of the world to come,' 
is all we can etymologically or exegetically make of the word 
in this passage.' " 

Undoubtedly the definition given by Schleusner is the 
accurate one, — "Duration determined by the subject to which it 
is applied." Thus it only expresses the idea of endlessness 
when connected with what is eternal, as God. The word great 
is an illustrative word. Great ajDphed to a tree, or mountain, 
or man, denotes a different degree in each case, but when refer- 



19 Hist. Fut. Ret. 
20Lange's Ecclesiastes. 



38 AION-AIONIOS. 

ring to God, it has the sense of infinite. Infinity does not reside 
in the word great, but it has that meaning when applied to 
God. It does not impart it to God ; it derives it from him. 
So of aionion; applied to Jonah's residence in the fish, it 
means seventy hours ; to the priesthood of Aaron, it signifies 
several centuries; to the mountains, thousands of years; to 
the punishments of a merciful God, as long as is necessary to 
vindicate his law and reform his children; to God himself, 
eternity. "What great is to size, alonlos is to duration. Hu- 
man beings live from a few hours to a century ; nations from 
a century to thousands of years; and worlds, for aught we 
know, from a few to many millions of years ; and God is eter- 
nal. So that when we see the word applied to a human life it 
denotes somewhere from a few days to a hundred years ; when 
it is applied to a nation, it denotes anywhere from a century 
to ten thousand years, more or less, and when to God it means 
endless. In other words, it practically denotes indefinite dura- 
tion, as we shall see when we meet the word in sacred and 
secular literature. Dr. Beecher well observes: 21 — "There are 
six ages, or aggregates of ages, involving temporary systems, 
spoken of in the Old Testament. These ages are distinctly 
stated to be temporary, and yet to them all are applied olam 
and its reduplications, as fully and emphatically as they are to 
God. This is a positive demonstration that the word olam, 
or aion, as affirmed by Taylor and Fiirst in their Hebrew 
Concordances, means an indefinite period or age, past or 
future, and not an absolute eternity. "When applied to God, 
the idea of eternity is derived from him and not from the 
word. . . . This indefinite division of time is represented 
by olam (Greek aion). Hence we find, since there are many 
ages, or periods, that the word is used in the plural. More- 
over, since one great period or age can comprehend under it 
subordinate ages, we find such expressions as an age of ages, 
or an olam of olams, and other reduplications. In some 
cases, however, the reduplication of olam seems to be a rhetor- 
21 Hist. Fut. Ret. 



LEXICOGRAPHY. 39 

ical amplification of the idea, without any comprehension of 
ages by a greater age. This is especially true when olam is 
in the singular in both parts of the reduplication, as ' to the 
age of the age.' The use of the word in the plural is decisive 
evidence that the sense of the word is not eternity, in the 
absolute sense, for there can be but one such eternity. But 
as time past and future can be divided by ages, so there may 
be many ages, and an age of ages." 

John Foster, the celebrated Baptist, declares : * 2 — "I hope 
it is not presumptuous to take advantage of the fact that the 
terms everlasting, eternal, forever, original or translated, are 
often employed in the Bible, as well as other writings, under 
great and various limitations of import ; and are thus with- 
drawn from the predicament of necessarily and absolutely 
meaning a strictly endless duration. The limitation is often, 
indeed, jriainly marked by the nature of the subject. In other 
instances the words are used with a figurative indefiniteness, 
which leaves the limitation to be made by some general rule 
of reason and proportion. They are designed to magnify, to 

aggravate, rather than to define I therefore 

conclude that a limited interpretation is authorized." 

Shnpson, in his Essays, says : 23 — "JEon occurs about a 
hundred times in the New Testament, [in all, one hundred 
and twenty-eight times,] in seventy of which, at least, it is 
clearly used for a limited duration. In the Septuagint trans- 
lation of the Old Testament it is even repeated, and several 
times it is repeated twice, without meaning eternity; and in 
two instances it signifies no longer a period than the life of 
one man only. It is an observation of the utmost importance, 
that when alav, or alavwg, is applied to the future punishment 
of the wicked, they are never joined to life, immortality, incor- 
ruptibility, but are always connected with fire, or with that 
punishment, pain, destruction, or second death, which is 
effected by means of fire. Now, since fire, which consumes 



22 Life and Cor. Letter to a Young Minister. 

23 Quoted by T. Southwood Smith, in Divine Goodness. 



40 AION-AIONIOS. 

or decomposes other perishable bodies, is of itself of a dis- 
soluble or perishing nature, this intimates a limitation of the 
period of time." 

It will be of interest to give here the views of Thomas De 
Quincey, one of the most accurate students of language, and 
profoundest reasoners and thinkers among English scholars, 
as well as one of the best Greek scholars: 24 — "I used to be 
annoyed and irritated by the false interpretation given to the 
Greek word aion, and given necessarily, therefore, to the 
Greek adjective aionios as its immediate derivative. It was 
not so much the falsehood of this interpretation, as the nar- 
rowness of that falsehood that disturbed me The 

reason which gives to this word aidnion what I do not scruple 
to call a dreadful importance, is the same reason, and no other, 
which prompted the dishonesty concerned in the ordinary in- 
terpretation of this word. The word happened to connect 
itself — but that was no practical concern of mine, — me it had 
not biased in the one direction, nor should it have biased any 
just critic in the counter direction — happened, I say, to con- 
nect itself with the ancient dispute upon the duration of 
future punishment. What was meant by the aidnion pun- 
ishments of the next world? Was the proper sense of the 
word eternal, or was it not ? . . . . That argument runs 
thus — that the ordinary construction of the word aionion, as 
equivalent to everlasting, could not possibly be given up, when 
associated with penal misery, because in that case, and by the 
very same act, the idea of eternity must be abandoned as 
applicable to the counter bliss of paradise. Torment and 
blessedness, it was argued, punishment and beatification, stood 
upon the same level; the same word it was, the word aionion, 
which qualified the duration of either ; and if eternity, in the 
most rigorous acceptation, fell away from the one idea, it must 
equally fall away from the other. Well, be it so. But that 
would not settle the question. It might be very painful to 
renounce a long-cherished anticipation, but the necessity of 

24 Theological Essays. 



LEXICOGRAPHY. 41 

doing so could not be received as a sufficient reason for ad- 
hering to the old unconditional use of the word aionion. 
The argument is, that we must retain the old sense of eter- 
nal, because else we lose upon one scale what we have gained 
upon the other. But what then? would be the reasonable 
man's retort. We are not to accept or reject a new construc- 
tion (if otherwise the more colorable) of the word aionion, 
simply because the consequences might seem such, as, upon 
the whole, to displease us, "We may gain nothing ; for by the 
new interpretation our loss may balance our gain, and we may 
prefer the old arrangement. But how monstrous is all this ! 
We are not summoned as to a choice of two different arrange- 
ments that may suit different tastes, but to a grave question 
as to what is the sense and operation of the word aionion. 
Meantime, all this speculation, first and last, 
is pure nonsense. Aionian does not mean eternal, neither 
does it mean of limited duration. Nor would the unsettling 
of aionian in its old use, as applied to punishment, to torment, 
to misery, etc., carry with it any necessary unsettling of the 
idea in its application to the beatitudes of Paradise. 

"What is an aion? The duration or cycle of existence 
which belongs to any object, not individually of itself, but 
universally, in right of its genius. . * . Man has a 
certain aionian life ; possibly ranging somewhere about the 
period of seventy years assigned in the Psalms. 

The period would in that case represent the ' aion' 
of the individual Tellurian; but the axon of the Tellurian 
race would probably amount to many millions of our earthly 
1 years, and it would remain an unfathomable mystery, deriving 
no light at all from the septuagenarian ' axon ' of the individ- 
ual; though between the two aions I have no doubt that some 
secret link of connection does and must subsist, however 
undiscoverable by human sagacity. 

"This only is discoverable, as a general tendency, that 
the aion, or generic period of evil is constantly towards a 
fugitive duration. The aion, it is alleged, must always 
express the same idea, whatever that may be ; if it is less 



42 AION-AIONIOS. 

than eternity for the evil cases, then it must be less for the 
good ones. Doubtless the idea of an aion is in one sense 
always uniform, always the same, — viz., as a tenth or a twelfth 
is always the same. Arithmetic could not exist if any caprice 
or variation affected their ideas — a tenth is always more than 
an eleventh, always less than a ninth. But this uniformity of 
ratio and proportion does not hinder but that a tenth may 
now represent a guinea, and the next moment represent a 
thousand guineas. The exact amount of the duration ex- 
pressed by an aion depends altogether upon the particular 
subject which yields the aion. It is, as I have said, a radix, 
and like an algebraic square-foot or cube-foot, though gov- 
erned by the most rigorous laws of limitation, it must vary 
in obedience to the nature of the particular subject whose 
radix it forms." De Quincey's conclusions are : 

"A. That man who allows himself to infer the eternity of 
evil from the counter eternity of good, builds upon the mis- 
take of assigning a stationary and mechanic value to the idea of 
an aion, whereas the very purpose of Scripture in using the 
word was to evade such a value. The word is always varying 
for the very purpose of keeping it faithful to a spiritual 
identity. The period or duration of every object would be 
an essentially variable quantity, were it not mysteriously com- 
mensurate to the inner nature of that object as laid open to 
the eyes of God. And thus it happens that everything 
in the world, possibly without a solitary exception, has its own 
separate aion ; how many entities, so many aions. 

"B. But if it be an excess of blindness which can overlook 
the aionian differences amongst even neutral entities, much 
deeper is that blindness which overlooks the separate ten- 
dencies of things evil and things good. Naturally, all evil is 
fugitive and allied to death. 

"C. I, separately, speaking for myself only, profoundly 
believe that the Scriptures ascribe absolute and metaphysical 
eternity to one sole being, — viz., God; and derivatively to all 
others according to the interest which they can plead in God's 
favor. Having anchorage in God, innumerable entities may 



LEXICOGRAPHY. 43 

possibly be admitted to a participation in divine aion. But 
what interest in the favor of God can belong to falsehood, 
to malignity, to impurity? To invest them with a Ionian 
privileges, is, in effect, and by its results, to distrust and to 
insult the Deity. Evil would not be evil, if it had that 
power of self-subsistence which is imparted to it in supposing 
its aionian life to be co-eternal with that which crowns and 
glorifies the good." 

Says Rev. Edmund H. Sears: 25 — "The word aion and its 
derivatives, rendered 'eternal' and 'everlasting,' describe an 
economy complete in itself, and the duration must depend on 
the nature of the economy. . . . The New 

Testament, if it reveals anything, reveals the aion — the dis- 
pensation that lies next to this, and gathers into it the momen- 
tous results of our probation in time. But what lies beyond 
that in the cycles of a coming eternity, I do not believe has 
been revealed to the highest angel. Think of that endless 
Beyond ! If every atom of the globe were counted off, and 
every atom stood for a million years, still we have not ap- 
proached a conception of endless duration. And yet sinful 
and fallible men affirm that their fellow sinners are to be 
given over to indescribable agonies through those millions of 
years thus repeated, and even then the clocks of eternity 
have only struck the morning hour ! that the hells of pent- 
up anguish are to streak eternity with blood in lines parallel 
forever with the being of God. If Gabriel should come and 
tell us that, we should have a right to believe that the history 
of the infinite future infolded in the bosom of God, had not 
been given to Gabriel." 

Dr. Pusey, a strenuous defender of endless hell torments, 
admits, 26 that the word only means "endless within the sphere 
of its own existence." 

It does not seem to have been generally considered by 
students of this subject that the thought of endless duration 



25 Sermons, pp. 99-102. 

26 Canon Farrar, Excursus on the word aidnios, in Eternal Hope. 



44 AION-AIONIOS. 

is comparatively a modern conception. 27 The ancients, at a 
time more recent than the date of the Old Testament, had 
not yet cognized the idea of endless duration, so that passages 
containing the word applied to God do hot mean that he is 
of eternal duration, but the idea in their minds was of indefi- 
nite duration. 

De Lamennais: 28 — "In Hebrew and Greek the words 
rendered everlasting have not this sense. They signify 'a 
duration of time,' a period, whence the phrase, 'during these 
eternities and beyond.' " 

De "Wette says: 29 — "The doctrine of eternal damnation 
cannot in any wise be retained, if we take the word eternal 
in a strict and absolute sense. For whatever is eternally 
damned, must have been created in a state of eternal damna- 
tion; for eternity has no beginning." 

Professor Blackie, Greek professor in the university of 
Edinburgh, observes 30 : — "It doesn't require any very profound 
scholarship to know that the word aionios, which we trans- 
late everlasting, does not signify eternity, absolutely and 
metaphysically, but only popularly, as when we say that a 
man is an eternal fool, meaning by that he is a very great 
fool." 

Canon Farrar's testimony is equally positive: 31 — "Now, 
I ask you, my brethren, very solemnly, where would be the 
popular teachings about hell if we calmly and deliberately 
erased from our English Bible the three words, ' damnation,' 
V 'hell,' and 'everlasting'? Yet I say, unhesitatingly, — I say, 
claiming the fullest right to speak with the authority of 
knowledge — I say, with the calmest and most unflinching 
sense of responsibility — I say, standing here in the sight of 
God and of my Savior, and, it may be, of the angels and 
spirits of the dead, that not one of those words ought to 
stand any longer in the English Bible, and that being, in our 



27 Pp. 11, 12, of this volume. 

2 8 Canon Farrar, Excursus V., Eternal Hope. 

29 Theol. Zeitschrift, Vol. II. 

3° Nat, Hist. Atheism, p. 201. si Eternal Hope. 



LEXICOGRAPHY. 45 

present acceptation of them, simply mistranslations, they 
most unquestionably will not stand in the revised version of 
the Bible, if the revisers have understood their duty. The 
word 'aionios,' translated 'everlasting,' is simply the word 
which, in its first sense, means 'age-long' or 'eoneon,' and it 
is, in the Bible itself, applied over and over again to things 
which have utterly and long since passed away ; and in its 
second sense, it is something above and beyond time — some- 
thing spiritual, as when the knowledge of God is said to have 
eternal or 'eoneon' life. So that when, with your futile 
billions of years, you foist into the word 'aionios' the fic- 
tion of an endless time, you do but give the He to the mighty 
oath of that great angel who set one foot on the sea and the 
other on the land, and with one hand uplifted to heaven, 
sware by him that liveth forever, that time should be no more. 
. . There is no authority whatever for rendering it everlast- 
ing." 

The Emphatic Diaglott : 32 — "Age, aioon, an indefinite peri- 
od of time, past, present or future. This is the proper transla- 
tion of aioon, which in the common version is often improp- 
erly rendered world, always, and forever. The word occurs 
about 100 times in its singular and plural forms. The ad- 
jective form of the same word, aioonios, is found about 75 
times, and is applied to zoe, life, 45 times, to fire 3 times, to 
glory 3 times, etc. Eternal or everlasting, as generally un- 
derstood, is an improper translation of aioonios; in fact, we 
have no proper equivalent in the English language. Being an 
adjective, and derived from the noun aioon, age, it cannot 
properly go beyond its meaning." 33 



32 New York, S. R. Wells. 

33 Hesychius, as we have shown, says it is sometimes used for "a 
longtime ;" andOrigen alludes to the same fact. InExod. Horn, vi: 13 ;ii : 3, 5. 
Leontius Byzantinus, even in arguing against Origenists, admits that both 
in profane and sacred literature aion is used as a definite period. Csesarius 
(Dial. 3) even observes that the Origenist argument on the terminability of 
torment was derived from the use of this very word. Huetius, 
Origeniana (Op. ed. Paris, iv : pp. 231, 233). 



46 AION-AIONIOS. 

diaries Kingsley, of the English Church, the celebrated 
author, wrote in a letter not long before his death 34 : — "That 
the true meanings of the word aion and aionios have 
little or nothing to do with it, even if aion be derived from 
aei, always, which I greatly doubt. The word never is used in 
Scripture anywhere else in the sense of endlessness (vulgarly 
called eternity). It always meant, both in Scripture and out, 
a period of time. Else how could it have a plural? — how 
could you talk of the aions and aeons of aeons, as the 
Scripture does ? Nay, more, how talk of outos aion, which 
the translators, with laudable inconsistency, have translated — 
this world, i. e., this present state of things, age, dispen- 
sation — epoch. Aionios, therefore, means, and must mean, 
belonging to an epoch, and aionios kolasis is the punish- 
ment belonging to that epoch. Always bear in mind, what 
Maurice insists on, — and what is so plain to honest readers, — 
that our Lord and the Apostles always speak of being in the 
end of an age or aeon, not as ushering in a new one, coming to 
judge and punish the old world; and to create a new one out 
of its ruins, or rather, as the Sunday-school better expresses 
it, to burn up the chaff and keep the wheat, i. e., all the ele- 
ments of food, as seed for the new world." 

Certainly the aggregate of these testimonies, from those 
who have made the word a careful study, compels us to deny 
to it the sense of endless duration, and disposes us to under- 
stand it as denoting limited duration, unless the connection 
in which it is found necessitates a different sense. 

"We pause here and raise this question : — Is it possible that 
our Heavenly Father had created a world of endless torture, 
to which his children for thousands of years were crowding in 
myriads, and that he not only had not revealed the fact to them, 
but was so short-sighted that he had not given them a word 
to express the fact, or even a capacity sufficient to bring the 
idea of the eternal suffering to which they were liable within 

34 Life and Letters. 



LEXICOGRAPHY. .47 

the compass of their cognition? He created the horse for 
man's use, and created man capable of comprehending the 
horse; he surrounded him with multitudes of animate and 
inanimate objects, each of which he could name and compre- 
hend, but the most important reality of all — one which must be 
believed in, or eternal woe is the penalty, man not only had no 
name for, but he was incapable of the faintest conception of 
the mere fact ! Would, or could a good Father be guilty of 
such an omission ? 

Can anything be clearer than this — that the critics unite 
in saying that limited duration is not only allowable, but that 
it is the prevailing signification of the word? Do they not 
agree that eternal duration is not in the word, and can only 
be imported into it by the subject associated with it? 

Thus, limited duration is the force of the word, — duration 
to be determined by the subject treated, if we allow Etymol- 
ogy and Lexicography to declare the verdict; and every 
reader of the Bible ought to enter upon its reading — after 
having studied the etymology and lexicography of the word — 
prejudiced in favor of giving to it, wherever found, the mean- 
ing of limited duration. 

In tracing the usage of the word, our sources of information 
will be (1) The Greek Classics, (2) The Septuagint, (3) Jewish 
Greeks contemporary with Christ, (4) The New Testament, (5) 
Early Christian Writers. 



USAGE.— L— THE GREEK CLASSICS. 



It is a vital question, How was the word used in the 
Greek literature with which the Seventy were familiar, — that 
is, the Greek Classics? 

"When the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into 
Greek, by the Seventy, the word had been in common use for 
many centuries. It is preposterous to say that the Seventy 
would render the Hebrew by the Greek, and give to the latter 
a different meaning from that of the former, or a different 
meaning from aion in current Greek literature. It is self- 
evident that aion in the Old Testament must mean exactly 
what olam means, and also what aion means in the Greek 
Classics. Indefinite duration is the sense of olam, and it is 
perfectly clear that aion must have the same signification. As 
we examine the word in the Classics we find that it was gen- 
erally used in a sense from which eternal duration is abso- 
lutely excluded. 

The oldest author is Homer, 1,000 B. C. In his Iliad 
and Odyssey aion occurs thirteen 1 times as a noun, always. 



i We give here the thirteen instances :— Iliad, XXII : 58, Avrur 6e QiViqg 
au'ovoQ a^epftrJc IL, XXIV: 725, r Avep, hi? cilovoq vsoq o)?,eo. II., IV: 478: 
XVII : 302, Mtvvvd-ddiog .... cufov; A briefly durable life. II., IX; 
415, 'Erri dqpbv 6e /iot aluv erraerai, My life shall be for a long period. 
11., V : 685, "Erceird pe ml Virroi alfov h woXet vuerepy" Let life forsake me 
in your city. II., XVI: 453, 'Ettt/v (h) rovye/jTrr/ ^w^rjre ml alo)V Juno ad- 
vises Jupiter to suffer Sarpedon to die, and to have him buried after life, and 
his soul have left him. H., XIX : 27, 'E/c (? au,>v rrtcbarai: Kara de xpoa 
irdvTO. oarriffl, The life has been expelled. In the Odyssey, V : 152, KareiSETo 
de yTiVKVQ aluv, voarov bSvpofifaa, His (Ulysses') sweet life was exhaling 
because anxious to return home. Od., V:160, Mqde rot aicbv (btiiveru, 



USAGE — THE CLASSIC 49 

Not in a single instance, as found in the oldest of Greek 
poets, Homer, is the word used to express the idea of eternal 
duration. Priam to Hector says, 2 " Thou shalt be deprived of 
pleasant aionos" (life). Andromache over dead Hector,' 
"Husband, thou hast perished from aionos" (life or time). 
The other instances have the same meaning. Dr. Beecher 
writes : 4 — " But there is a case that excludes all possibility of 
doubt or evasion, in the Homeric Hymn of Mercury, vs. 42 and 
119. Here axon is used to denote the marrow, as the life of an 
animal, as Moses calls the blood the life. This is recognized 
by Crusius in his Homeric Lexicon. In this case to pierce 
the life (aion) of a turtle means to pierce the spinal cord. 
The idea of life is here exclusive of time or eternity." These 
are fair illustrations of Homer's use of the word. 

Hesiod (800 B. C), employs it twice : 5 — "To him (the mar- 
ried man) during aionos (life) evil is constantly striving, etc." 

JEschylus (525 B. C), has the word twenty-one times, after 
this manner : — " This life (aion) seems long," etc. " Jupiter, 
king of the never-ceasing w^orld" 7 (aionos apaustou). 

Pindar (522 B. C.) gives eighteen instances, such as 8 "A 
long life produces the four virtues." 

Sophocles (B. C.495), uses aion nine times, makraion 

Nor let your life escape. Od., VTI : 224, 'Idovra fie mi ?jttoi alcjv utt/giv e/ir/v 
duuaQ -£, ml i'i}>£pe(p£C fxtya duua, Let life forsake me, etc. Od., IX: 523, 
'ivxvQ T£ KaL nicjvog m m evviv Troir/aar Having deprived you of life and 
soul. Od., Xvill: 204, 'Odvpouhr) Kara d-vfibv a'icjva <p&ivv$u. Penelope here 
asks Diana to let her die ; that grief may no longer consume her life. 

2I1.,XXH:58. ^II., XXXV: 725. 4 Hist. Fut. Ket. 

5 Theog., 609, Ty Se cltt' aluvoq mubv ecrtf/la avTKp£p/.£ei iujuevai. Also 
Scut. Here, 331. 

ePersae, 263. 

' Supp., 570. Cited by Tayler Lewis. It also occurs, Prom. 860 ; Sept. Con. 
Theb., 219 ;ib., 744 ;ib., 774 ; Suppl., 47 ; ib., 577 ; Agam., 107 ; ib., 230 ; ib., 249 ; 
ib., 556 ; ib., 716 ; ib., 1150 ; Choeph., 24 ; ib., 348 ; ib., 440 ; Eumen., 315 ; ib., 
560 ; Pers., 1007 ; Prom. 107. 

8 Nem., LTI : 130. The passages in Pindar found in his Odes are, Olymp., 
11:18,121; IX: 90; Pyth., HI: 153; 1V:.331;V:8; VTLl:139; Nem., II: 11; 
III : 130 ; IX ; 106 ; Isthm., HI : 29 ; VII : 59 ; VIH : 27 ; Fragments (Donald- 
son's ed.) lxxvii : 3 ; xcii : 2 ; xevi : 3 ; cxlvi. 
4. 



50 AION-AIONIOS. 

five times, euaion three times. 9 Long is employed by him to 
increase the force of aion, which would be worse than super- 
fluous if the word of itself signified interminable duration. 

Hippocrates (460 B. 0.):- "A human aion is a seven 
days' matter." 10 

Euripides (480 B. C), uses the word thirty-two times. 
"We quote four instances : — u "Marriage to those mortals who 
are well situated is a happy aion." 12 " Every aion of mortals 



9 Elect. 1030 :— "Acksi, roiavrr] vovv (V altivog fj.evew, Try to continue the 
same in mind during life. lb., 1091, Kal avrrdyiOiavTov aiowa kolvov e'i'Aov, 
—And thou has constantly chosen a sorrowful life. Ajax Flag., 657, , 

'12 r?iduo)v it are p, 

O'tav oe fievei Trv&ead-ai 

Uaidbg dvotyapov arav, 

"Av ovtto) rig e&peipev 

A'luv Alatciddv 

* Arep&e ye rovde. 
—Unhappy father, what a sad calamity you are soon to learn concerning 
your son, such as no one, (that is, who ever lived, no life,) ever endured in the 
fa mil y of .ZEacus, but this one. Antig. 589, 'EvSal/uoveg, o\at nanuv ayeva- 
rog alliv — Whose life is free from a taste of evils. CEdip. Colon., 1812. 
IIoZ dfjT' avd-tg 6JJ' epqjuog, arropog, alfhva t?m/j.g)v e^o — Where shall I sup- 
port life, desolate and overwhelmed hereafter? Trachinise, 2, Ova av aluv 
knfidftoi Bporavj irplv av ddvot rig, ovr' el X9 r l ar0 ^i obr' el ru> nanog ,— No 
one can know the life of mortals before he has died, whether good or evil to 
any. Ibid., 34, Towvrog aluv elg dopovg re new do/uov alel rbv avSp' eirepiTre 
"Xarpevovra tu— Such a life, at home and abroad, is always awaiting the man 
who is a servant to any one. Philoc. 179, '£2 6'varava y'evrj dpor&v, olg fc?j 
/LLerptog aitiv—O miserable race of mortals, who have not a life of mediocrity, 
lb. 1390, '£2 GTvyvbg aluv 1 ri /u' ere df/r' 1 e^ecg civu SleTrovra, kovk acbrjaag 
elg aSov fidkelv,— Ah, detestable life, why still detain me here above, and no^ 
permit me to depart to the grave ? He also uses panpaiuv five times, (CEd. Tyr. 
526, 1118 ; Ajax Flag. 195 ; Antigone, 999 ; (Ed. Col. 148, 9) in the sense of long 
life and evatuv as happy life three times, (Trach. 81 ; Philoc. 855). No other 
meaning than we have ascribed is possible. 

io Peri SarTcon. Hippocrates says :— The human aion is so clearly only a 
seven-days' matter that if it will but refrain from eating and drinking seven 
days it will die. He uses the word just as Aristotle does. 
ii Orestes, 596. 12 Ibid, 971. 



USAGE — THE CLASSICS. 



51 



is unstable." 13 "A long aion lias many things to say," etc. 
14 "He breathed out the aiona." 

Ernpedocles, (444 B. C.) :— "An earthly body deprived of 
happy life," (aionos). 15 

Isocrates, (436 B.C.) : lfj — "Those who live with piety and 
righteousness, both continue securely in the present time, and 
concerning the whole aion have their hopes very sweet." 
Of those who understand the Eleusinian mysteries, he says : — 
They "have very, sweet hopes concerning the end of life, and 
the whole aion" Evidently life is here the exact equivalent 
of aion. 

Professor Clarke quotes many passages from later writers, 
such as Erinna (560 B. C), Euripides (450 B. C), Epictetus 
(140 A. D.), Plutarch (160 A. D.), Diodorus (75 B. C.), Al- 
cinous, Philo Judaeus (A. D., 60), and others, and inclines to 
the view that they gave the meaning of eternity to the word, 
and that the adjective always means endless ; but a careful read- 
ing of his citations satisfies us that the passages employ the 
word in the sense of lif e — Greek bios — the duration of it to be 
determined by the connections. We give a few of his quota- 
tions : — "Diodorus, in the first century before Christ, wrote, 
'Joining the order of the stars and the natures of men into a 
common analogy, it circles continuously through fell the aion/ 
Again he says, 'Some, presuming that the cosmos is unborn 
and imperishable, have amrmedthat the race of men has existed 
from aion.' Again, 'By fear of harm of their bodies, and of 
disgraced repute for all the aion' — (referring to deprivation of 

13 Med., 428. The other passages are found in Hec, 754; Phoeniss. 
1498; Med. 243, 646; Androm, 1218; Suppl., 1008; Iphigen. in AuL, 1517; 
Iphigen. in Taur., 1129; Bacch., 92; Suppl.. 962 (incomp.); Bacch., 426; 
Phceniss., 1537 ; Hippol., 1444 ; Alcest., 486 ; Bacch., 395 ; Heracl., 903 ; Ion, 
637; Phceniss., 1549; Suppl., 962, 1087; Helen, 215; Ion, 126; Here. Fur. 

673; Iphigen. in AuL, 552. . Suppl. 962; Bacch. 426; Ion 126; and 

Iph. Aul. 552 are the compound adjective. 

14 Philoc, quoted by Hesychius. 

15 Quoted by Hierocles. 

16 Quoted by Prof. J. C. C. Clarke, Professor of Greek in Shurtleff College, 
Illinois. 



52 AION-AIONIOS. 

religious burial supposed necessary for souls). Again he writes, 
'To spend the aion in the approaching Hades with the pious.' 
About the Christian era, and for several centuries later* 
there were hosts in all Greek-speaking nations who believed 
that there had emanated from God, before time began, a num- 
ber of lesser deities who would live forever. These they called 
aiones, imitating Plato imperfectly, or following a still older 
idea. For Erinna, a poetess early in the sixth century 
before Christ, in an ode to the goddess Rhome (Might) wrote, 
' To thee alone, the greatest Aion, who shakes all things, and 
transforms life variously, does not change the favoring wind 
of rule.' And Euripides, in the fifth century, wrote, ' Many 
things does Fate produce, and Aion, Son of Kronos.' In the 
second century after Christ, Epictetus wrote, ' I am not an 
aion, but a man.' Plutarch, in the second century, said of sui- 
cides, ' They must not thus go to aion.' " 

Dr. Beecher gives these and other instances, most or all 
of which we believe we have cited. Andromache over Hector, 
(H. XXIV, 725), "Too early hast thou perished from life," (ai- 
on). Sarpedon to Hector, "Do not permit my life (aion) to 
lea\e me." In Hymn to Mercury (vs. 42, 119), the god is de- 
scribed as destroying the life (aion) of a mountain tortoise, 
and the lives (aionas) of two cows to prepare a feast. In 
Pindar (Hypochor. III., 5), "His life (aion) was dashed out 
through his bones." iEschylus says (Prometheus, 862), "Each 
wife shall deprive her husband of life" (aion). Euripides 
(Orestes, 603), "a happy life" (aion). In Bacchae Semele "left 
this life" (aion). Sophocles, (Philoctetes, 179,) "O! miserable 
generations of mortals, to whom not even a tolerable life (aion) 
is assigned." Also (1348) "O! sad, hateful, gloomy life" (aion). 
Euripedes, (Hecuba, 754-7,) Agamemnon to Hecuba, "Your ser- 
vile life" (aion). Hecuba replies, "To be in servitude all my 
life" (aion). He insists that endless duration is not contained 
in the word. 

Rev. Ezra S. Goodwin 17 has patiently and candidly traced 

iv Chris. Exam., Vols. X, XI, and XIII. 



USAGE — THE CLASSICS. 53 

this word through the Classics, finding the noun frequently 
in nearly all the writers, but not meeting the adjective until 
Plato, its inventor, usedit. He states, as the result of his pro- 
tracted and exhaustive examination from the beginning down 
to Plato, "We have the whole evidence of seven Greek writers, 
extending through about six centuries, down to the age of 
Plato, who make use of aion in common with other words, 
and no one of them ever employs it in the sense of eternity ." 

Plato (429 B. C.J employs the noun as Iris predecessors 
had done, "Leading a life (aiona) involved in troubles." 18 He 
uses aion eight times, aionios five, diaionios once, and 
makraion, twice. If he regarded the noun as signifying 
eternity he would not attach prefixes signifying short and 
long. 

Prof. Clarke 19 quotes from Plato's Timreus. Plato had 
said that God, in making the visible heaven out of eternal es- 
sence, imitated the best divine essence he could see, and the 
duration of it is an aion. Plato then says, according to Prof. 
Clarke, "The pattern was an infinite or eternal living being 
— a real being through all eternity" (aion). But why not say 
duration, or being, instead of "eternity" ? Is not the mean- 
ing here equivalent to that of the Greek bios? 

Plato employs four instances of aion, three of aionios, 
and one of diaionios in a single passage, 20 in contrast with 
a'idios (eternal). The gods he calls eternal (a'idios), but the 
soul and the corporeal nature are aionios, belonging to time, 
and "all these," "are part of time." And he calls time (Kro- 
nos) an aionios image of Aionos. Exactly what so obscure an 
author may mean here is not apparent, but one thing is per- 
fectly clear, he cannot mean eternity and eternal by aionos 
and aionion, for nothing is wider from the fact than that fluc- 

and full of 

is De Leg. Lib. ILL These are the passages in which Plato employs the 
■words :— Protact., Vol. I ; Gorgias, De Leg., Lib. X ; Axioch. Vol. m ; Timseus ; 
De Repub., Lib. II ; De Leg., Lib. X, and Phaedon. 

is il Is Aionion Endless ? " articles in New York Examiner and Chronicle. 

so Timseus. 



54 AION-AIONIOS. 

mutations, is an image of eternity. It is in every possible par- 
ticular its exact opposite. 21 

The adjective aionios is found in none of the authors 
above quoted, except Plato. Mr. Goodwin thinks that Plato 
coined it, for even Socrates, the teacher of Plato, does not 
use it. In all the Greek literature covering a period of more 
than six hundred years, the word is never found. Of course 
it must mean the same as the noun that is its source. It 
having clearly appeared that the noun is uniformly used to 
denote limited duration, and never to signify eternity, it is 
equally apparent that the adjective must mean the same. 
The noun sweetness gives its flavor to its adjective, sweet. 
The adjective long means precisely the same as the noun 
length. When sweet stands for acidity, and long represents 
brevity, aionios can properly mean eternal, derived from aidn, 
limited duration. To say that Plato, the inventor of the 
word, has used the adjective to mean eternal, when neither 
he nor any of his predecessors ever used the noun to denote 
eternity, would be to charge one of the wisest of men with 
etymological stupidity. Has he been guilty of such folly ? 
How does he use the word ? Referring to certain souls in 
Hades, 22 he describes them as in aionion intoxication. But 
that he does not use the word in the sense of endless is evi- 
dent from the Phsedon, where he says, "It is a very ancient 
opinion that souls quitting this world repair to the infernal 
regions, and return after that, to live in this world." After 
the aionion intoxication is over, they return to earth, which 

21 See Protag., Vol. I. :— My lot in life (jwlpav (iiuvoq). Gorg.,— life, 
being, (jbv aitiva rjuciv). De Leg., Lib. Ill:— a wretched life (xa7i£irbv 
alcjva). Axiochus, Vol. III. What the author meant here is not clear. He 
could not have meant eternity. He says :— "If human nature could have 
seen that the relations of this world are associated (elg top altiva) in an or- 
ganization, into life, a complete entity or being." The meaning is obscure 
except that eternity is not possible. Makraion occurs in De Kepub. Lib. II, 
and Epin. Vol. II (probably by one of Plato's disciples). The "ancient opin- 
ion" he quotes from Museeus. 

22 De Bepub., Lib. H. 



USAGE — THE CLASSICS. 55 

demonstrates that the word was not used by him as meaning 
endless. Again, 23 he speaks of that which is indestructible, 
(anolethron) and not aionion. He places the two words in 
contrast, whereas, had he intended to use aionion to mean 
endless, he would have said indestructible and aionion. 

The adjective occurs in Plato five times. 24 "The best rec- 
ompense of virtue is continual elevation," or "constant exalt- 
ation," — literally, "life-long intoxication," uedrjv aluviov. He 
calls the soul and body indestructible and not aionion. 25 Tem- 
poral duration is the meaning here, for aionion is contrasted 
with indestructible. In the Timreus aionios occurs three 
times. The gods, he says, are aidiov, eternal, but the animal is 
aiuvtov, as God created an aionian image of being, which we 
name time. Time and the heavens were generated together, so 
that if there should ever be a dissolution of them, they might 
be as much alike as possible; they both have an aionian na- 
ture. He then adds that the stars are made like a living being, 
with an imitation of an aionian nature, Trpbg ryv r?jg dtatoviaq 
fiiurjoiv (pvacug. It is not easy to put Plato's meaning into plain 
English, but nothing can be clearer than that these first five re- 
corded instances of the occurrence of the adjective do not 
signify endless duration. 

Plato has been supposed by many to teach the eternity of 
the torments of the wicked. But if anything is clearly taught 
by him, it is that the various transmigrations of all souls will 
result at length in their purification. 26 He most distinctly 
teaches that punishment will end in the advantage of the 
punished. 27 His use of the word discussed in this monograph 
in connection with punishment is not, as has been so often 
supposed, a proof of his belief in that doctrine, because, as 



23DeLeg.,Lib.X. 
24Deftepub.,Ldb.iL 

25 Ibid:— avufe&pov tie bv ysvo/uevov, aTJC ovk aluviov, ip v XV v mt G&fia. 

26 Tbis is in tbe Timasus, Gorgias and Pbaedon very plainly set fortb. 

27 De Kepub. 



56 AION-AIONIOS. 

Olympiodorus shows, 23 Plato applied the word to the heav- 
enly spheres, meaning a cycle or ceon, throughout which some 
souls would be punished. Olympiodorus well observes : — "Pun- 
ishment cannot be eternal. An unending pain can do no good, 
for it is useless. God and nature do nothing in vain." Pla- 
to's use of the word was in entire harmony with its meaning 
throughout the Classics. 

We cite passages from Aristotle : De Mundo, Cap. 2 : — 
"The stars move harmoniously during their existence"^' aitivor). 
Ibid, Cap. 5 : — "The stars and moon move from one epoch, 
or ceon, to another, "(ff alpvoe rig irepov aitiva). lb. : — Of the earth's 
changes, he says they are for her safety during her life, {rfm St 
aitivog GojTTjplav napexecv). lb. : — The existence or being of earth 
is described: — (pvXdrrd to av/nrav a<p-&aprov 6C aluvoc. Cap. 7: — ■ 
"God's existence extends from one age, or ceon, to another," 
(6i7]Kuv e£ a'uovoc dreppovor eic erepov aitiva). Metaph. Lib. XIV., 
Cap. 7 : — "Life and a being perpetual and eternal belong to 
God," (were £ut) ml aibv avvexvQ ml dhkog virdpxei rtJGfw). Ibid, 
Cap. 9: — "The whole life, or entire being," (rbv arcavra alojva). 
De Coelo, Lib. I., Cap. 10 : — "An entire existence" (rbv diravra 
alo)va). lb., Lib. II., Cap. 1 : — " The complete heaven is one 
and eternal (didioc), having no beginning nor end of a whole 
existence or being," (ap^z/f p-ev ml re2.ev-?)v oim ex^v rov iravroQ 
aiuvog). (See p. 22, "Etymology.") De Part. An. Lib. L, Cap. 
5 : — "Entire life," (rbv diravra alebva). Ehetor., Lib. I., Cap. 13 : 
— "Life would forsake them numbering, (that is, counting 
duties of legislators)," — Li VKO%ehroi yap drj b al(bv fiiaf)i&povvTaq. n 
In Phys., Lib. VIII., he quotes from Empedocles whether 
motion be eternal (dUhoc) and declares that of certain tilings, 
life {aion) is not permanent. 

.?] pev ev 6K tt^.eovuv /uepd&rjKe (pvea^ar 
"H f5f 7rd?uv dia&vvroc hoc, rzKtov r fursled-ovcr., 
Trj pev •yiyvovrai re, ml ov otptoiv ipTredoc ah'ov 

Aristotle (384 B. C.) used the word several times. He 



28 Cousin quotes the whole of the Commentary by Olympiodorus in his 
translation of Plato's Gorgias, Vol. III. 



USAGE — THE CLASSICS. 57 

speaks of the existence or duration (aion) of the earth; 29 of 
an unlimited aionos ; 30 and of "an eternal (a'ldion) aion" (or 
being) "pertaining to God." The fact that Aristotle found it 
necessary to add a'ldios to aion to ascribe eternity to God dem- 
onstrates that he found no sense of eternity in the word aion, 
and utterly discards the idea that he held the word to mean 
endless duration, even admitting that he derived it, or supposed 
the ancients did, from ael on, — according to the opinion of 
some lexicographers. A similar use of the word appears in 
De Casio. 31 "The entire heaven is one and eternal (a'idios) hav- 
ing neither beginning nor end of an entire aion.'''' In the 
same work 32 occurs the famous passage where Aristotle has been 
said to describe the derivation of the word, which we have 
quoted on page 22 : — Aion estin, apo ton ael einai. 

Mr. Goodwin well observes that the word had existed a 
thousand years before Aristotle's day, and that he had no 
knowledge of its origin, and poorer facilities for tracing it 
than many a scholar of the present possesses. "While, there- 
fore, we would regard an opinion of Aristotle on the derivation 
of an ancient word, with the respect due to extensive learning 
and venerable age, still we must bear in mind that his opinion 
is not indisputable authority." Mr. Goodwin proceeds to af- 
firm that Aristotle does not apply ael on to duration but to 
God, and that (as we have shown) 33 a human existence is an 
aion. Completeness, whether brief or protracted, is his idea. 
As Aristotle employed it "aion did not contain the meaning of 
eternity." 34 

In De Mundo, 35 Aristotle says : — "The stars, sun, and also 
the moon moving in most perfect measures from one aion to 
another aion." Now, even if Aristotle had said that the word 
was at first derived from two words that signify always being 
his own use of it demonstrates that it had not that meaning 
then (B. C. 350). Again, 36 he says of the earth, "All these 

2 9De Mundo, Cap. 5. 30 Metaph., Lib. XIV. 

31 Lib. II., Cap. 1. 32 ib., Lib. I., Cap. 9. See also Cap. 10. 

33 Etymology. 34 Cbris. Exam. 

35 De Mundo, Cap. 5. 3G Ibid. 



58 AION-AIONIOS. 

things seem to be done for her good, in order to maintain 
safety during her aionos," duration, or life. And still more 
to the purpose is his language concerning God's existence, 37 
"Life and an aion continuous and eternal." Here the word 
a'idios, (eternal) is employed to qualify aion and impart to it 
what it had not of itself, the sense of eternal. Aristotle could 
be guilty of no such language as "an eternal eternity." Had 
the word aion contained the idea of eternity in his time, or in 
his mind, he would not have added a'idios. 'Tor the limit 
enclosing the time of the Hf e of every man, ... is called 
his continuous existence, aion. On the same principle, the 
limit of the whole heaven, and the limit inclosing the univer- 
sal system, is the divine, an immortal, ever-existing aion, de- 
riving the name aion from ever-existing, (aei on)." 38 In eleven 
out of twelve instances in the works of Aristotle, aion is 
used either doubtfully, or in a manner similar to the instance 
above cited, (from one aion to another, that is, from one age 
to another), but in this last instance it is perfectly clear that 
an aion is only without end when it is described by an adjec- 
tive like a'idios, whose meaning is endless. It is a matter of 
indifference how the word originatedj after hearing from Aris- 
totle himself that created objects exist from one aion to an- 
other, and that the existence of the eternal God cannot be 
described by a word so feeble, but must have the addition of 
another that expresses endless duration. Aion only obtains 
the force of eternal duration by being reenforced by words 
meaning immortal. 39 

In most cases the word is enlarged by descriptive adjec- 
tives. JEsckykis calls Jupiter "king of the never-ceasing aion," 
and Aristotle expressly states in one ease that the aion of heaven 
"has neither beginning nor end," and in another instance 
he calls man's life his aion, and the aion of heaven "immortal." 
If aion denotes eternity, why add "neither beginning nor end," 



37 Metaph. Lib. XIV. 38 See Etymology, p. 22. 

39 De Part. Animal., Lib. I; Rnetor., Lib. I.; Pbys. VIII. (quoting from 
Empedocles). 



USAGE — THE CLASSICS. 59 

or "immortal," to extend its meaning? These quotations un- 
answerably show that alon in the Classics never means eter- 
nity unless a qualifying word or subject connected with it add 
to its intrinsic value. 

Says Dr. Beecher: — "In Ronie there were certain periodi- 
cal games known as the secular games, from the Latin secu- 
lum, a period, or age. The historian, Herodian, writing in 
Greek, calls these aidnian games, that is, periodical, occurring 
at the end of a seculum. It would be singular, indeed, to call 
them eternal or everlasting games. Cremer, in his masterly 
Lexicon of New Testament Greek, states the general meaning 
of the word to be ' belonging to the aion.' " Herodotus, Isoc- 
rates, Xenophon, Sophocles and Diodorus Siculus use the word 
in precisely the same way. Diodorus Siculus says ton apei- 
ron aiona, "indefinite time." 

It appears, then, that the Classic Greek writers, for more 
than six centuries before the Septuagint was written, used the 
noun aion and its adjective, but never once in the sense of 
endless duration. When, therefore, the Seventy translated 
the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, what meaning must they 
have intended to give to these words? It is not possible, it 
is absolutely insupposable, that they used them with any other 
meaning than that which they had held in the antecedent 
Greek literature. As the Hebrew word meaning horse was 
rendered by a Greek word meaning horse, as each Hebrew 
word was exchanged for a Greek word denoting precisely the 
same thing, so the terms expressive of duration in Hebrew 
became Greek terms expressing similar duration. The trans- 
lators consistently render olam by aion, both denoting indef- 
inite duration. 

We have shown (p-p. 11-12) that the idea of eternity had not 
entered the Hebrew mind when the Old Testament was written. 
How, then, could it employ terms expressive of endless dura- 
tion? We have now shown that the Greek literature uni- 
formly understands the word in the sense of limited duration. 
This teaches us exactly how the word was taken at the time 



60 AION-AIONIOS. 

the Septuagint was prepared, and shows us how to read the 
Old Testament understanding^. 

When at length the idea of eternity was cognized by the 
human mind, probably first by the Greeks, what word did they 
employ to represent the idea? Did they regard aion-aio- 
nion as adequate ? Not at all, but Plato and Aristotle and 
others employ a'idios, and distinctly use it in contrast with 
our mooted word. We have instanced Aristotle, 39 "The entire 
heaven is one and eternal (a'idios) having neither beginning 
nor end of a complete aion, (Hie, or duration)." In the same 
chapter a'idiotes is used to mean eternity. 

Plato 40 calls the gods a'idion, and their essence aidion, 
in contrast with temporal matters, which are alonios. Aidios, 
then, is the favorite word descriptive of endless duration in 
the Greek writers contemporary with the Septuagint. Aion 
is never thus used. 

Mr. Goodwin well observes: — "Those lexicographers who 
assign eternity as one of the meanings of aion uniformly ap- 
peal for proofs to either theological, Hebrew or Rabbinical 
Greek, or some species of Greek subsequent to the age of the 
Seventy, if not subsequent to the age of the apostles, so far as 
I can ascertain. I do not know of an instance in which any 
lexicographer has produced the usage of ancient classical 
Greek in evidence that aion means eternity. Ancient Clas- 
sical Greek rejects it altogether. . . " By "ancient" he 
means the Greek literature antecedent to the LXX. He 
thus concludes his conscientious investigation of the seven 
oldest Greek Classics that he examined, line by line, "Aion 
in these writers never expresses positive eternity." 41 

Thus it appears that when the Seventy began their work 
of giving the world a Greek version of the Old Testament that 
should convey the exact sense of the Hebrew Bible, they must 
have used aion and its derivatives and reduplications in the 



39 De Caelo, Lib. II, Cap. 1. 4 " Quoting from Tinieeus Locrus. 

41 Chris. Exam. 



USAGE — THE CLASSICS. 61 

sense in which they then were used. Endless duration is not 
the meaning the words had in Greek literature at that time. 
Therefore they cannot have that meaning in the Old Testa- 
ment Greek. Nothing can be j>lainer than that Greek Liter- 
ature at the time the Hebrew Old Testament was rendered in- 
to the Greek Septuagint did not give to aion the meaning of 
endless duration, so that we must take up the Old Testament 
predisposed to give to the word, wherever it occurs, and in all 
its forms, the sense of limited duration. And as we trace it 
through the Old Testament we shall see that it is used thus, 
as in the Classics, and as defined by Lexicographers and 
Critics. 42 

42 Professor Clarke, after surveying all our citations, admits that in the 
poets aion means life, and is nearly equivalent to bios, but he thinks that 
from the time of Plato there was a complete substitution of the metaphysical 
meaning of eternity. We have never seen any evidence of the extraordi- 
nary assumption that the great philosopher accomplished so stupendous a 
feat as to revolutionize the meaning of a word— one which would seem to 
every philologist quite impossible. Until demonstrated, students must 
accredit Plato with employing the word as he found it. Besides, as we now 
proceed to show, the LXX. disregarded the example attributed to him by 
Prof. Clarke, and used the word as the other Classics had always done. In 
assuming that Plato endeavored to foist the sense of eternity into aion, Pro- 
fessor Clarke makes the strongest kind of argument against his own posi- 
tion, for even so great a literary autocrat as Plato could not make the 
meaning stick, inasmuch as subsequent writers refused to recognize his 
authority, but continusdto employ the word as their predecessors had done. 
Had Plato— as he did not— infused eternal duration into aion, in his own 
writings, its inherent sense asserted itself the moment Plato's influence was 
withdrawn ! But our quotations show that the great philosopher's custom 
harmonized with that of preceding writers. 



Note.— Having submitted the proofs of the chapter relating to the Clas- 
sics to President White, he kindly furnished this important correction : 

On page 52, Prof. Clark seems to be singularly in error. I refer to the 
quotation from Erinna I am aware that some writers think that Erinna 
addressed her ode to Bhome (Might). The we : ght of authority is on the other 
side. The word aiuv is not used even in the sense of age by any Greek 
writer so early as Erinna (610 B. C). The poem was probably written to 
the "Genius of Rome" (city) and not by the Erinna who was Sappho's pupil 
(610 B. C), but by another poetess of the same name who lived about 300 



62 AI0N-AI0NI0S. 

B. C, or at least in the time of Rome's supremacy. Others who take the 
same or a similar view attribute the poem to Melinna, a poetess who lived 
about the same time. / discovered my error in this matter after several 
months' looking— I could give you quite a history in this connection. 
I will cite only one authority :— Moebius, in his "Fragments of Anacreon, 
Sappho and Erinna," inserts this poem, but says it is not by the contemporary 
of Sappho. Moebius' notes are in Latin. I will translate somewhat freely :— 
"Stobaeus has preserved for us this most elegant ode 'on Rome,' and he calls 
it the ode of Melinna (or Melinnus) or, rather of Erinna, the Lesbian : this 
Eri?i?ia-wsLS not the contemporary of Sappho, but she must have lived at a 
later time, when Rome had arrived at the zenith of her power ..... 
for, those are not at all to be believed who think that the goddess ' Might,' 
and not the city, Rome, is celebrated in this Ode." The author (Moebius) 
refers for his authority to Jacob's "Lyrische Blumen," p. 227. Also to F. 
Th. Welker in Creuzern Meletem, Vol. II., p. 18, etc., etc. Weiker is a first- 
class authority. This is a matter of first importance. 



USAGE.— IL.—THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

The Pentateuch was rendered into Greek at about the 
time of the return from the Babylonish captivity, and the 
entire Old Testament was combined in one collection about 
384-347 B. C./ somewhere near the time of the death of 
Plato, who may have seen it. 

It is difficult to realize how thoroughly Greek in their liter- 
ature were the Jews at the time of Christ. Says Geikie : 2 — 

i Prideaux, (Connection, Vol. III., Part ii., Book 1.,) says, 300-200 B. C. ; 
but more recent and better authorities say 384-347 B. C, during the reign of 
Ptolemy Philadelphus. It was immediately introduced into Palestine from 
Alexandria, and became the common Bible of the Jews, who at that time 
spoke the Aramaic. It was from this version that Jesus and the Apostles 
almost uniformly quoted. 

2 The Life and Words of Christ, by Cunningham Geikie, D. D. 



USAGE — THE OLD TESTAMENT. 63 

"Even iii the days of the Syrian kings, Palestine had been 
encircled by Greek towns and cities, and the immigration of 
Greek settlers had, in Herod's day, made the towns of the 
Philistine coast and of the Decapolis much more Greek than 
Jewish. . . . Greek had become the court dialect of the 
Empire, as French was that of Europe in the days of Louis 
XIV. ; and hence it was universally favored and spoken by the 
upper classes in Herod's dominions. It seemed as if the 
throne of David existed only to spread heathenism ! " It was 
because of this state of things that the Jews in Palestine were 
as familiar with the Greek version of the Old Testament as 
with the Hebrew Scriptures, and hence Christ and his apos- 
tles almost invariably quoted from the LXX. To say that 
they gave to Greek words a meaning different from that which 
those words carried in the Classic Greek, spoken and read all 
about them, is to contradict the self-evident facts of the case. 
Of course the Seventy gave to all Greek words the same mean- 
ing they had in the Classic Greek. To ascertain just what the 
Greek Old Testament means by aion, or any other word, we 
need only learn its meaning in contemporaneous Greek. The 
Seventy would as soon have rendered the Hebrew word for 
horse by a Greek word meaning fly, as they would have used 
aion for endless duration, if, as we have shown, and shall 
show is the fact, antecedent and contemporaneous Greek 
literature used it to denote limited duration. 

It cannot, then, be denied or doubted that the word under 
discussion has the same meaning in the Greek version of the 
Old Testament, that it bore in preceding and contempora- 
neous Greek literature. 3 And in giving the world a Greek ver- 
sion of the Old Testament that should convey the exact sense 
of the Hebrew Bible, the Seventy must have used aion in the 
sense in which olam was used, inasmuch as it is its invariable 
equivalent ; and as endless duration is not the meaning the word 
had in Greek literature — as we have shown — therefore the 



8 The Greek Old Testament is the best of all lexicons of the Greek equiva- 
lents of Hebrew words. 



64: AION-AIONIOS. 

word cannot have that meaning in the Old Testament Greek. 
Nothing can be plainer than that Greek literature, at the time 
the Hebrew Old Testament was rendered into the Greek Sep? 
tnagint did not give to aion the meaning of endless duration, 
and it is therefore self-evident that the Old Testament must 
employ the word in the sense of indefinite duration ; otherwise 
the Old Testament would mislead its readers. 

Rev. E. S. Goodwin, speaking of the Septuagint, observes : 4 
— "These translators were Greek scholars. Jews or Gentiles, 
they must have been acquainted with Greek literature, or they 
could not have been competent to the work of translation. , In 
translating, they made use of Greek words in a classical sense 
wherever they could. In selecting a Greek word to represent 
a Hebrew word, they selected one which sustained, in true 
Greek, a general meaning, as near as might be, to the sense 
which they believed to exist in the Hebrew word. In translat- 
ing a Hebrew word sustaining several meanings, they selected 
for the purpose, as nearly as possible, a Greek term 
sustaining the same different senses. Their Greek words 
ought to be understood in their classical sense, unless it should 
be in evidence that they employed them, in the instances in 
question, in some peculiar Hebrew-Greek sense ; due allowance 
being made for the different idioms of the two languages, and 
for those shades of difference which exist in words most 
nearly correspondent to each other in different languages. The 
Seventy uniformly employ aihv or al&vioc to represent what 
they understood D71JJ to signify in Hebrew ; so uniformly, that 
to all purposes of the present investigation it may be said 
they always do so. There are terms in the Greek language 
which express eternity and eternal, besides albv and aluviog, 
whether these latter express these ideas or not. But those 
other terms are never employed in translating D?iy. The 
Seventy met with the word D?1JJ in the Hebrew Scriptures ; 
they selected aihv and aluvtoc, as the proper terms by which 

* Chris. Exam., March, 1831. 



USAGE — THE OLD TESTAMENT. 65 

to translate it ; they adhered to these words for this purpose 
with a scrupulous pertinacity. The inference is direct, that 
they believed this Hebrew term to bear an import as nearly 
equal to that of these Greek words in classical Greek, as the 
idioms of the two languages would admit. Whatever, then, was 
the import of aluv or alaviog in true Greek in their age, we 
must believe that such was the meaning of D7IJ? in their minds, 
and (considering their favorable circumstances) that such was 
its true meaning, with proper allowances as above stated." 

Before proceeding to exhibit the usage of the word in the 
Old Testament, let us pause a moment on the brink of our in- 
vestigation to speak of the utter absurdity of the idea that 
God has suspended the immortal welfare of millions of souls 
on the meaning of a single equivocal word. Had he intended 
to teach endless punishment by any word, that word would 
have been so explicit and uniform and frequent that no mor- 
tal could mistake its meaning. It would have been guarded 
from first to last with strictest care, and would have stood 
unique and peculiar among words. It would no more be 
found conveying a limited meaning in any instance than is 
the sacred name of Jehovah applied to any finite being. 
Instead of denoting every degree of duration, as it does, it 
never would have meant less than eternity. The thought that 
God has suspended the question of man's final destiny on 
such a word would seem too preposterous to be entertained by 
any reflecting mind, did we not know that such an idea is held 
by Christians. And yet, endless duration is never expressed or 
implied in the Old Testament by aion or any of its derivatives 
except in instances where it acquires that meaning from the 
subject with which it is connected, as the word great signifies 
infinite when it describes Deity. Out of five hundred and 
four 5 occurrences of the disx3uted word in the Old Testament, 
about four hundred denote limited duration, so that the great 

5 The noun 394 times, and the adjective 110 times ; and all but four are 
translations of olam. 



6Q AION-AIONIOS. 

preponderance of Old Testament usage fully agrees with that of 
the Greek Classics. The remaining instances follow the rule 
given • by the best lexicographers, — that it only means endless 
when it derives its meaning of endlessness from the nature of 
the subject with which it is connected.* 3 

Dr. Beecher r remarks that the sense of endless given to 
the aionian phraseology "fills the Old Testament with contra- 
dictions, for it would make it declare the absolute eternity of 
systems which it often and emphatically declares to be tempo- 
rary. Nor can it be said that aionios denotes lasting as long 
as the nature of things permits. The Mosaic ordinances 
might have lasted at least to the end of the world, but did 
not. Moreover, on this principle the exceptions to the true 
sense of the word exceed its proper use; for in the majority 
of cases in the Old Testament, aionios is applied to that 
which is limited and temporary." 

Let us first consider the noun as it is used in the Old 
Testament. Waiving the passages where it is applied to 
God, and where by accommodation it may be allowed to 
imply endlessness, just as great applied to God means infinity, 
let us consult the general usage. 8 Eccl. i : 10, "Is there any- 
thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new! it hath been 
already of old lime, which was before us." Ps. xxv : 6, 
"Eemember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving kind- 
ness ; for they have been ever of old. " Ps. cxix : 52, "I remem- 
bered thy judgments of old, O Lord; and have comforted 
myself." Isa. xlvi:9, "Eemember the former things of old." 
Isa. lxiv: 4, "Since the beginning of the world" Jer. 
xxviii : 8, "The prophets that have been before me and before 
thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and 
against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence." 
Jer. ii:20, "For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and 
burst thy bands." Pro v. viii : 23, "I (wisdom) was set up from 

c See pp. 9-10. ' Hist. Fut. Ket. 

8 The English words representing aion are printed in italics. 



USAGE — THE OLD TESTAMENT. 67 

everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was." 
Here everlasting and "before the world was," are in apposition. 
Ps. lxxiii: 12, "Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper 
in the world." Dent, xxxii : 7, "Remember the days of old." 
Ezek. xxvi:20, "The people of old time." Ps. cxliii:3, 
"Those who have been long dead." Same in Lam. iii: 6. 
Amos. ix. 11, "Days of old." Isa. li : 9, "Generations of old." 
Micah. vii: 14, "Days of old." Same in Malachi iii: 4. 
Ps. xlviii :14, "For this God is our God/or ever and ever : he will 
be our guide even unto death." This plural form denotes no 
longer than "even unto death. " Christ's kingdom is prophesied as 
destined to endure "forever" "without end" etc. (Dan. ii : 44; 
Isa. lix : 21 ; Ps. ex : 4 ; Isa. ix : 7 ; Ps. lxxxix : 29.) Now if any- 
thing is taught in the Bible, it is that Christ's kingdom shall 
end. In I. Cor. xv it is expressly and explicitly declared 
that Jesus shall surrender the kingdom to God the Father, 
that his reign shall entirely cease. Hence, when we read in 
such passages as Dan. ii : 44, that Christ's kingdom shall 
stand forever, we must understand that the forever denotes 
the reign of Messias bounded by "the end" when God shall 
be "all in all." 

Servants were declared to be bound forever, when all ser- 
vants were emancipated every fifty years. Thus, in Deut. xv: 
16-17, we read, "And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not 
go away from thee ; because he loveth thee and thine house, 
because he is well with thee, then thou shalt take an awl, and 
thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy ser- 
vant forever." And yet we are told (Lev.xxv: 10, 39-41), "And ye 
shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout 
all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof— it shall be a jub- 
ilee unto you ; and ye shall return every man unto his posses- 
sions, and ye shall return every man unto his family. And if 
thy brother that dwelleth with thee be waxen poor, and be 
sold unto thee ; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond 
servant, but as a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be 
with thee, and shall serve unto the year of jubilee ; and then 
shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and 



68 AI0N-AI0NI0S. 

shall return unto his own family and unto the possession of his 
father shall he return." This forever, at the utmost, could 
only be' forty-nine years and three hundred and sixty-four 
days and some odd hours. 

And certainly no one will ascribe endless duration to axon 
in the following passages: — II. Sam.vii: 16, "And thine house 
and thy kingdom shall be established/or ever before thee — thy 
throne shall be established for ever. " II. Sam. vii : 29, " There- 
fore now let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that 
it may continue/or ever before thee — for thou, O Lord God, hast 
spoken it; and with thy blessing let the house of thy servant 
be blessed/or ever. This is the house and kingdom and throne 
of David." I. K. ii: 45, "And king Solomon shall be 
blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before 
the Lord forever." I K. ix: 5, "Then I will establish the 
throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to 
David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon 
the throne of Israel." I. Chron. xvii : 27, Now, therefore, let 
it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may be 
before thee for ever; for thou blessest, O Lord, and it shall be 
blessed for ever." I. Chron. xxviii : 4, "Howbeit, the Lord 
God of Israel chose me before all the house of my father to 
be king over Israel for ever; for he hath chosen Judah to be 
the ruler; and of the house of Judah, the house of my father; 
and among the sons of my father he liked me to make me king 
over all Israel." II. Chron. xiii:5, "Ought ye not to know 
that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to 
David for ever, evega to him and his sons by a covenant of 
salt?" Ps. lxxxix: 3-4, "I have made a covenant with my 
chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant. Thy 
seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to 
all generations. Selah." Ps. lxxxix; 36, "His seed shall endure 
for ever, and his throne as the sun before me." Ps. lxxxix: 37, 
"It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful 
witness in heaven. Selah." Ezek. xxxvii : 25, "And they shall 
dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, where- 
in your fathers have dwelt ; and they shall dwell therein, even 



USAGE — THE OLD TESTAMENT. by 

they and their children, and their children's children for ever', 
and my servant David shall be their prince for ever." I. Sam. 
xiii: 13, "And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done fool- 
ishly; thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy 
God, which he commanded thee ; for now would the Lord have 
established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever." Jer. xxxi : 40, 
"And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and 
all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the 
horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the Lord; it 
shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever." 
See also II. Sam. vii : 13, 16, 25, 26, xxii : 51 ; I. K. ii : 33; 
I. Chron. xvii: 12,14, 14, 23, xxii : 10, xxviii :7 ; Ps. xviii: 50, 
lxxxix : 4, and cxxxii :12 ; Ex. xxxii :13 ; Josh, xiv :9 ; I. Chr. xxviii : 
7 ; Jud. ii : 1 ; II. Chron. vii : 3 ; Ps. cv : 8 ; Gen. xiii : 15 ; I. Chron. 
xxviii : 4, 7, 8 ; Ezek. xxxvii : 25 ; Jer. vii : 7, 7 ; II. Sam. vii : 24; 
I. Chron. xvii : 22 ; Joel iii : 20 ; II. K. xxi : 7 ; II. Chron. xxxiii : 
4 ; Ps. xlviii : 8 ; Jer. xvii : 25 ; I. Chron. xxiii : 25 ; Isa. xxiii : 7 ; 

I. K. ix : 3 ; II. Chron. xxx : 8 ; Ezek. xxxvii : 26, 28 ; II. Chron. 
vii : 16 ; Ex. xix : 9, and xl : 15 ; I. Chron. xxiii : 13, 25 ; I. Chron. 
xv : 2 ; Lev. iii : 17 ; II. Chron. ii : 4 ; Ex. xii : 24 ; Josh, iv : 7 ; 
Am. i : 11 ; Isa . xiii : 20 ; Isa. xxxiii : 20 ; xxxiv : 10 ; I. K. x : 9 ; 

II. Chron. ix: 8; Ps. cii: 28; Ezek. xliii: 7. Certainly in all 
these texts a limited duration is the utmost that the language 
will bear. And these are specimen passages of the prevailing 
sense of the term throughout the Old Testament, as the reader 
may easily ascertain. 

The adjective is used in the same sense as the noun in 
these and other passages: — Gen. ix: 12,16, xvii: 8,13,19; 
Numb, xxv : 13; Ex. xii: 14, 17, xxvii: 21, xxviii: 43, xxix: 
28, xxx: 21, xxxi: 16, 17; Lev. vi: 18, 22, vii: 34, 36, x: 15, 
xvi: 29, 31, 34, xvii: 7, xxiii: 14, 31, 41, xxiv: 3, 8, 9; Numb. 
x : 8, xv : 15, xviii : 8, 11, 19, 23, xix : 10, 21 ; II. Sam. xxiii : 5 ; 
I. Chron. xvi: 17; Isa. xxiv: 5; Ezek. xvi: 60; Ps. lxxvii: 
5; Isa. lxiii: 11; Jer. vi: 16, xviii: 15, xxii: 15; Isa. 
lviii: 12, lxi: 4; Ezek. xxvi: 20; Prov. xxii: 28, xxiii: 10; 



70 AION-AIONIOS. 

Ezek. xxxvi: 2, xxxv: 5; Isa. liv: 8; Jer. v: 22, xviii: 16, xxv: 
9, 12 ; Ezek. xxxv : 9 ; Jer. xx : 11, xxiii : 40, li : 39 ; Micali ii : 9. 
We will quote some of the foregoing texts : — "And ye shall 
observe the feast of unleavened bread ; for in this self -same 
day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt — 
therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an 
ordinance for ever:' "And thou shalt command the children 
of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil-olive beaten for the 
light, to cause the lamp to burn always.'" "In the tabernacle 
of the congregation without the vail, which is before the tes- 
timony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to 
morning before the Lord — it shall be a statute for ever unto 
their generations on behalf of the children of Israel." "And 
they shall be upon Aaron and upon his sons, when they come 
in unto the tabernacle of the congregation, or when they come 
near unto the altar to minister in the holy place ; that they 
bear not iniquity and die — it shall be a statute for ever unto 
him and his seed after him." "Hast thou not marked the old 
way which wicked men have trodden?" "Fear ye not me — 
saith the Lord — will ye not tremble at my presence, which 
have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual 
decree, that it cannot pass it ; and though the waves thereof 
toss themselves, yet can they not prevail : though they roar, 
yet can they not pass over it." All of the above references are 
similarly used. To render the word eternal will show how absurd 
such a definition would be in the following passages : 9 — "I will 
give unto thee, and thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art 
a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an eternal possession." 
"And thou shalt anoint them as thou didst their father, that 
they may minister unto me in the priest's office ; for their 
anointing shall surely be a priesthood through the eternity." 
"Then his master shall bring him to the door, or unto the 
door-posts, and his master shall bore his ear through with an 
awl, and he shall serve him through the eternity." 



s Gen. xvii:8; Ex.xl:15; xxi:6; Jonah ii : 5-6. The Greek gives the 
adjective in Jonah ii, but the accurate rendering of the Hebrew is forever. 



USAGE— THE OLD TESTAMENT. 71 

" The waters compassed me about— even to the soul ; 
The weeds were wrapped about my head, 
I went down to the bottoms of the mountains ; 
The earth with her eternal bars was about me." 

Still further do the subjoined texts demonstrate the im- 
propriety of the popular rendering, which would compel us to 
read 10 — "The Lord shall reign to the eternity , and (Luring the 
eternity, and longer." "And they that be wise shall shine as 
the brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many to 
righteousness as the stars through the eternities and longer" 
"And we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God through 
the eternity and longer. " But substitute ages and the sense is 
perfect. Ex. xv: 18, "The Lord shall reign from age to age, 
and beyond all the ages" ; Dan. xii : 3, "Through the ages and 
beyond themall" ; Micahiv : 5, "Through the a ges and beyond." 

No one can read the Old Testament unbiased, and fail 
to see that the word has a great range of meaning, bearing 
some such relation to duration as the word great does to size. 
"We say God is infinite when we call him the great God, not 
because great means infinite, but because God is infinite. 
The aionion God is of eternal duration, but the aionion 
smoke of Idumea has expired, and the aionion hills will one 
day crumble, and all merely aionian things will cease to be. 
Prof. David Swing says : — " There are many ' f orevers ' in public 
thought : — (1) The complimentary forever, as O King, live for 
ever ! but the King will not dolt. (2) The forever of friendship, 
as I shall love you forever. (3) The forever of rhetoric, as the 
smoke of her torment ascends forever. (4) The forever of com- 
parison, as one generation passeth away, another generation 
cometh, but the earth abideth forever. It will do so in compar- 
ison with the brief life of the generation, but the earth has no 
essential eternity given it, for the moment it is compared with 
the life of God, it becomes the temporary thing, and God the 
everlasting : 

io Ex xv:18; Dan. xii: 3; Micah. iv:5. 



72 AION-AIONIOS. 

The sun, himself, shall fade, 

The starry "worlds shall fall 
And through a v.ist etsrnity, 

Shall God be all in all. r5 

While it is a rule of language that adjectives qualify and 
describe nouns, it is no less true that nouns sometimes modify 
adjectives. A tall plant, a tall dog, a tall man, and a tall tree 
are of different degrees of length, though the different nouns 
are described by the same adjective. The adjective is in each 
instance modified by its noun, just as the seonian bars that 
held Jonah three days, and the seonian priesthood of Aaron 
already ended, and the seonian hills yet to be destroyed, and 
seonian punishment, always proportioned to human guilt, are 
of different degrees of length. The adjective is modified and 
its length is determined by the noun with which it is connected. 
Thus, in Gen. xxi : 33, God is seonian ; Gen. xvii : 8, Canaan is 
an seonian possession ; Numb, xxv : 13, the Aaronic priesthood 
is seonian ; in Jonah ii : 6, three days are seonian ; Proverbs 
xxii : 28 calls the old boundaries of land seonian ; in Hab. iii : 
6, the hills are seonian, so that the word possesses all degrees 
of meaning, from three days to strict eternity, according to 
the noun that accompanies it. How absurd, then, to assume 
that it must mean endless when applied to punishment. 

Prof. Tayler Lewis says, 11 "' One generation passeth away, 
and another generation cometh ; but the earth abideth forever.' 
This certainly indicates not an endless eternity in the strictest 
sense of the word, but only a future of unlimited length. Ex. 
xxxi : 16, ' Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the 
Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, 
for a perpetual covenant.' Aion here would seem to be taken 
as a hyperbolical term for indefinite or unmeasured duration." 
Where the context demands it, as "I live forever," spoken of 
God, he says it means endless duration, for " it is the subject 
to which it is applied that forces to this, and not any etymo- 
logical necessity in the word itself." He adds that olam and 

11 Note onEccl. i : 4 ; Langes Com. pp. 45-50. 



USAGE — THE OLD TESTAMENT. 73 

aion in the plural, ages and ages of ages, demonstrate that 
neither of the words, of itself, denotes eternity. He admits 
that they are used to give an idea of eternity, but that applied 
to God and his kingdom, the ages are finite. Prof. L. was 
eminently learned and as eminently orthodox. 

Canaan was given to the Jews for an everlasting possession^ 
Gen. xvii : 8, xlviii : 4 ; the hills are everlasting, Gen. xlix : 26 ; 
the priesthood of Aaron is everlasting, Numb, xxv : 13 ; the 
Jewish law was to be everlasting, Lev. xvi : 34; the mountains, 
though everlasting, were scattered, Hab. iii : 6 ; Gehazi was to 
be a leper forever, II. Kings v : 27 ; and certain bondmen were 
to be servants forever, Dent, xv: 17, Lev. xxv: 46; the land 
wa" given to Abram forever, Gen. xiii : 15 ; Jerusalem was to 
remain forever, Jer. xvii: 25, xxxi: 40, Ps. xlviii: 8; Jonah 
was in the fish three days, and after he came out he declared 
" Earth with her bars was about me forever," Jonah ii : 6 ; none 
was to pass through the land of Idumea forever and ever, 
Isa. xxxiv : 10 ; and the Jews were to dwell in their land forever 
and ever, Jer. vii : 7. And yet the Jews have lost their eternal 
excellency ; Aaron and his sons have ceased from their priest- 
hood ; the Mosaic system is superseded by Christianity; the 
Jews no longer possess Canaan ; David and his house have lost 
the throne of Israel ; the Jewish temple is destroyed, and Jeru- 
salem is no longer the holy city; the servants who were to be 
bondmen forever are all free from their masters; Gehazi is 
cured of his leprosy ; the stones are removed from Jordan, 
and the smoke of Idumea no longer rises ; the righteous do 
not possess the land promised them forever ; some of the hills 
and mountains have fallen, and the tooth of time will one day 
gnaw the last of them into dust ; the fire has expired from the 
Jewish altar ; Jonah has escaped from his imprisonment ; all 
these and numerous other eternal, everlasting things — things 
that were to last forever, and to which the various reonian 
words were applied — have now ended, and if these hundreds of 
instances must denote limited duration why should the few 
times in which the same word is connected with punishment 



74 AION-AIONIOS. 

have any other meaning ? Even if endless duration were the 
intrinsic meaning of the word, all intelligent readers of the 
Bible would perceive that the word must be employed to 
denote limited duration in the passages above cited. And 
surely in the very few times in which it is connected with 
punishment it must have a similar meaning. For who admin- 
isters this punishment ? Not a monster, not an infinite devil, 
but a God of love and mercy; and the same common sense that 
would forbid us to give the word the meaning of endless dura- 
tion, were that its literal meaning, when we see it applied to 
what we know has ended, would forbid us to give it that 
meaning when applied to the dealings of an infinite Father 
with an erring and beloved child. But when we interpret it 
in the light of its general usage out of the Old Testament, and 
perceive that it only has the sense of endless when the subject 
compels it, as when referring to God, we cannot allow that it 
denotes endless duration when describing God's punishments. 
Let the reader consider further illustrations of the Bible 
usage of the word. Gen. vi: 4, "There were giants in the 
earth in those days ; and also after that, when the sons of God 
came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children 
to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men 
of renown." Gen. ix : 12, God's covenant with Noah was " for 
■perpetual generations." Gen. ix: 16, the rainbow is the 
token of " the everlasting covenant" between God and "all 
flesh that is upon the earth." Gen. xiii: 15, God gave the 
land to Abraham and his seed "forever." Dr. T. Clowes says of 
this passage that it signifies the duration of human life, and he 
adds, "Let no one be surprised that we use the word olam 
(aion) in this limited sense. This is one of the most usual 
significations of the Hebrew olam and the Greek aion." In 
Isa. lviii: 12 it is rendered " old " and "foundations": "And 
they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places; 
thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations ; and 
thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach." In Jer. xviii : 
15, 16, ancient and perpjetual : " Because my people hath 
forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they 



/ 

USAGE — THE OLD TESTAMENT. 75 

have caused them to stumble in their ways from the 
ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up; 
to make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every 
one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his 
head." Such instances may be cited to an indefinite extent. 
Ex. xv : 18, "Forever and ever and further." 12 Ex. xii: 17, 
" And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread ; for this 
self-same day have I brought your armies out of the land of 
Egypt, therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations 
by an ordinance forever" Numb, x : 8, "And the sons of 
Aaron, the priests, shall blow with the trumpets ; and they shall 
be to you for an ordinance forever throughout your gene- 
rations." "Your generations," here idiomatically stands as 
the precise equivalent of "forever." Canaan was given as an 
"everlasting possession," (Gen. xvii : 8, xlviii : 4) ; the hills 
are everlasting (Hab. iii : 6) ; the priesthood of Aaron (Lev. xxiv : 
8, 9; Ex. xl: 15; Numb, xxv: 13; Lev. xvi: 34) was to exist 
forever, and continue through everlasting duration; Solo- 
mon's temple was to last forever (I. Chron. xvii : 12), though 
it has long since ceased to be ; slaves were to remain in bond- 
age forever (Lev. xxv: 46), though every fiftieth year all 
Hebrew servants were to be set at liberty, (Lev. xxv : 10) ; 
Jonah suffered an imprisonment behind the everlasting bars of 
earth, (Jon. ii: 6); the smoke of Idumea was to ascend forever, 
(Isa. xxxiv : 10) though it no longer rises ; to the Jews God 
says (Jer. xxxii: 40), "And I will bring an everlasting reproach 
upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgot- 
ten," and yet, after the fullness of the Gentiles shall come in, 
Israel will be restored, (Rom. xi : 25-6.) 

Not only in all these and multitudes of other cases does 
the word mean limited duration, but it is also used in the 
plural, thus debarring it from the sense of endless, as there can 
be but one eternity. In Dan. xii : 3 the literal reading, if we 
allow the word to mean eternity, is, "to eternities and 

12 rbv alcjva, nal e~' alcJva, ml en. 



76 AION-AIONIOS. 

farther." u Micali. iv: 5, "We will walk in the name of the 
Lord our God to eternity and beyond" ; Ex. xv : 18, " From 
eternity .to eternity and further"; Ps. cxix: 43-44, "And take 
not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth ; for I have 
hoped in thy judgments. So shall I keep thy law continually 
forever and ever." This is the strongest combination of the 
peonian jmraseology, 14 and yet it is David's promise of fidelity 
so long as he lives among them that "reproach" him, in " the 
house of his pilgrimage." Ps. cxlviii: 4-6, "Praise him, ye 
heaven of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. 
Let them praise the name of the Lord : for he commanded 
and they were created. He hath also established them f ( or 
ever and ever : he hath made a decree which shall not pass. 
The sun and moon, the stars of light, and even the waters 
above the heavens are established forever" 15 and yet the 
firmament is one day to become as a folded garment, and the 
orbs of heaven are to be no more. Endless duration is out of 
the question in these and many similar instances. 

In Lam. v : 19, " forever and ever " is used as the equiv- 
alent of "from generation to generation." Joel ii : 26-27, "And 
ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of 
the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and 
my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I 
am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God 
and none else : and my people shall never be ashamed." This 
is spoken of the Jewish nation. Isa. lx : 15, " Whereas, thou 
hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through 
thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many 
generations." Here many generations, and eternal, are exact 
equivalents. I. Sam. i : 22, " But Hannah went not up : for 
she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be 
weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before 
the Lord, and there abide forever." The remaining of Sam- 

13 elg rovg a'uovag, kcil etc. 

14 elg tov alo)va nal elg tov aluva tov altivog. 
15 elg rbv aluva ml elg tov aixova tov alcbvog. 



USAGE — THE OLD TESTAMENT. 77 

uel in the temple was to be "forever" II. Kings v : 27, " The 
leprosy, therefore, of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto 
thy seed forever." Whether the seed of Gehazi is still on 
earth, the leprosy has departed. Daniel ii : 4, " Then spake the 
Chaldeans to the king in Syriac, O king, live forever ." The 
Chaldean's "Live forever" meant precisely what the French 
"Vive" and the English " Long live the king" mean. Eternal 
duration never entered the thought. Jer. xvii : 25, " Then 
shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes 
sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on 
horses ; they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the in- 
habitants of Jerusalem and this city shall remain forever" 
Eternity was not promised here, — long duration is the "extent 
of the meaning. Josh, iv : 7, " Then ye shall answer them, 
that the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the 
covenant of the Lord : when it passed over Jordan, the waters 
of Jordan were cut off; and these stones shall be for a memo- 
rial unto the children of Israel forever" These stones are no 
longer a memorial, — this forever has ended. 

Forever and ever is applied to the hosts of heaven, or the 
sun, moon, and stars ; to a writing contained in a book ; to the 
smoke that went up from the burning land of Idumea ; and to the 
time the Jews were to dwell in Judea. 10 

Never is applied to the time the sword was to remain in 
the house of David, and to the time the Jews should experience 
shame. 17 

Everlasting 1S is applied to God's covenant with the 
Jews ; to the priesthood of Aaron ; to the statutes of Moses ; to 
the time the Jews were to possess the land of Canaan; to the 
mountains and hills ; and to the doors of the Jewish temple. 19 

Forever is applied to the duration of man's earthly exis- 



16 Ps. cxlviii : 5-6 ; Isa. xxx : S ; xxxiv : 10 ; Jer. vii : 7 ; xxv : 5. 
i? II. Sam. xii : 10 ; Joel ii : 26-27. 

18 Univ. Book of Reference, pp. 106-7. 

19 Gen. xvii : 7, 8, 3 3 ; xlviii : 4 ; xlix : 26 ; Ex. xl : 15 ; Lev. xvi : S-i ; Num. 
xxv : 13 ; Ps. xxiv : 7 ; Hab. iii : 6. 



78 AION-AIONIOS. 

tence ; to the time a child was to abide in the temple ; to the contin- 
uance of Gehazi's leprosy ; to the duration of the life of David ; 
to the duration of a king's life ; to the duration of the earth ; 
to the time the Jews were to possess the land of Canaan ; 
to the time they were to dwell in Jerusalem ; to the time a ser- 
vant was to abide with his master; to the time Jerusalem was 
to remain a city ; to the duration of the Jewish temple ; to 
the laws and ordinances of Moses ; to the time David was to 
be king over Israel ; to the throne of Solomon; to the stones 
that were set up at Jordan; to the time the righteous were to 
inhabit the earth ; and to the time Jonah was in the fish's belly. 20 

And yet, the land of Canaan, the Jews' " everlasting pos- 
session," has passed from their hands ; the covenant of circum- 
cision, an " everlasting covenant," was abolished almost two 
thousand years ago ; the Jewish atonement (Lev. xvi), an ever- 
lasting statute, is abrogated by the atonement of Christ ; David 
was never to want a man to sit on Israel's throne, but this 
Ionian line of succession was long ago broken. 

Many passages allude to the earth as enduring forever; 
to the grave, as man's "long home"; to God's existence, as 
" forever," etc. Often the language is equivalent to " to the 
ages," or " from age to age," and sometimes eternal duration is 
intended, not because the word compels it, but because the 
theme treated requires it. It is true that the adjective is applied 
to God, Zion, and tilings intrinsically endless, and thus acquires 
from the connected subjects a meaning not inherent in the 
word, as in the following passages: — Gen. xxi : 33; Ex. iii: 15; 
Job xii: 12; Isa. xl: 28, li: 11, liv: 8, lv: 3, 13, lvi: 5, lx: 15, 
19, lxi: 7, 8, lxiii: 12; Ezek. xxxvii: 26; Dan. vii: 27, ix: 24, 
xii : 2 ; Hab. iii : 6 ; Ps. cxii : 6, cxxxvi : 8. Thus, "And Abraham 
planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of 

20 Deut. xv : 17 ; I. Sam. i : 22 ; xxvii : 12; Lev. xxv : 46 ; II. Kings v : 27 ; Job 
xl : 4 ; I. Kings i : 31 ; Neh. ii : 3 ; Dan. ii : 4 ; Exod. xiv : 13 ; Ecc. i : 4 ; Ps. civ: 
5 ; lxxviii : 69 ; Ezek. xxxvii : 25 ; Gen. xiii : 15 ;.Exod. xxxii : 13 ; Josh, xiv : 9 ; 
I. Chron. xxiii : 25 ; Jer. xvii : 25 ; Ps. xiviii : 8 ; Jer. xxxi : 40 ; I. Kings viii: 
13; Num. x:8; xviii:23; I. Chron. xxviii:4; I. Kings ix:5j Josh. iv:7; 
Jonah ii : 6 ; Ps. xxxvii : 29. 



USAGE — THE OLD TESTAMENT. 79 

the Lord, the everlasting God." The adjective aionion is 
here applied to God, in the sense of eternal, because the 
nature of God requires it, though, as Knapp and LeClerc say, 
the author of the language had no definite idea of endless 
duration when he employed the term. The word is used in 
the same way here : — "The Lord God of your fathers, the God 
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath 
sent me unto you: this is my name forever, and this is my 
memorial unto all generations." "AH generations " is put as the 
equivalent of forever, here, showing that the word is employed 
rhetorically rather than accurately. The word acquires an 
added force, from its connections, to its original strength in 
the foregoing passages, and in others that it is unnecessary to 
cite. The reader can consult them from the above references. 

The usage of the term as a plural, as having a beginning and 
an ending, and its application to so many subjects that have 
ended or must end, compels us to believe that its intrinsic 
meaning is a duration determined by its surroundings, as 
Alex. Campbell, Scarlett, Stuart, Dr. Taylor, Schleusner, and 
others declare, 21 "to be determined by the persons or things 
spoken of, and the scope of the subjects." And if the word 
derives its meaning from the subject with which it is connected, 
surely it must denote limited duration when related to the 
punishments administered by a merciful Father to his weak 
and erring children, especially, when, as we shall see in the 
New Testament use of the word, that punishment is described 
by a term that signifies to " chasten, correct, prune." 

If Jonah could say, "Out of the belly of hell cried I, earth 
with her bars was about me forever" — if he was, as he says 
he was, in " hell forever," when only three days in the fish, is it 
not evident that the word does not of itself signify an unlimited 
duration, and is it not further evident that when we see it 
applied to the consequences of sin we must give it a meaning 
that shall harmonize with the Divine character, and the nature 
of just punishment ? Defining it thus, who can give one reason 

21 See Lexicography in this volume. 



80 AION-AIONIOS. 

for understanding it as meaning endless ? Considering who 
inflicts punishment, it is morally more absurd to give to ever- 
lasting the meaning of endless when applied to it, than it is 
mathematically absurd to say that Jonah's forever — seventy- 
two hours, — was literally endless. If Canaan was to pass from 
the possession of the Jews ; if the hills were to be melted, and 
the priesthood of Aaron to end; the Jewish law to cease; 
the mountains to be destroyed; Gehazi's leprosy no longer to 
last; the bondmen's chains to be melted; Abraham to lose pos- 
session of his land ; Jerusalem to be destroyed, and Jonah to 
remain in the fish only three days when all were to be everlasti ng, 
eternal, forever, — what conceivable reason is there for supposing 
that punishment shall last forever, when only the same quali- 
fying words are applied to it ? 

Canon Farrar observes: 22 — "Thus in the Old Testament 
aion, aionios and many such varieties of expression (as eis 
aiona aionos) (ep aiona kai eti, in sceculum et ultra, ' forever 
and beyond!') are in our version rendered 'forever,' or 
' forever and ever ' ; but so far from necessarily implying end- 
lessness, they are used of many Jewish ordinances which 
ceased centuries ago, such as the sprinkling of the lintel at the 
Passover (Ex. xii : 24) ; the Aaronic priesthood and its institu- 
tions (Ex. xxix : 9, xl : 15 ; Lev. iii : 17 ; Numb, xviii : 19) ; the 
inheritance given to Caleb (Josh, xiv : 9) ; Solomon's temple 
(I. Kings viii: 13); the period of a slave's life (Deut. xv: 17; 
Job xli : 4) ; the burning of the fire upon the altar (' The fire 
shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out,' 
Lev. vi : 13, etc.) ; and the leprosy of Gehazi (II. Kings v : 27)« 
How jrarely figurative these phrases are, may be seen by such 
passages as the following : — 'The land thereof shall become 
burning pitch: it shall not be quenched night or day; 
the smoke thereof shall go up forever ' (Isa. xxxiv : 
10). And so fully is this a recognized idiom that in Deut. 
xxiii : 3, 6, we find ' forever ' put side by side with ' till 
the tenth generation ;' and though it is added ' thou shalt not 

22 Excursus in Eternal Hope. 



USAGE— THE OLD TESTAMENT 81 

seek their peace and prosperity forever,' yet of the very 
Moabites and Ammonites, of whom this is spoken, we find a 
prophecy of peace and comfort in Jer. xlviii : 47, xlix : 6. That 
the adjective aionios is applied to some things which are ' end- 
less ' does not, of course, for one moment prove that the word 
itself meant ' endless,' and to introduce this rendering into 
many passages would be utterly impossible and absurd. To 
translate it in a few passages by ' everlasting,' when in the large 
majority of passages it is rendered ' eternal,' is a purely 
wanton and arbitrary variation, which unhappily occurs in one 
and the same verse (Matt, xxv: 46)." 

Let us now illustrate the usage of the word connected 
with punishment. Ps. ix: 5, "Thou hast destroyed the 
wicked." How? The explanation follows, "Thou hast put 
out their name forever and ever."- 3 This is not endless tor- 
ment, but oblivion. Solomon elsewhere observes, Prov. x : 7, 
" The name of the wicked shall rot," while David says, Ps. 
cxii : 6, " The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.' 
Ps. lxxviii: 66, "He put them (his enemies) to sl perpetual 
reproach." Isa. xxxiii : 14, " Who among us shall dwell with the 
devouring fire ? "Who among us shall dwell with everlasting 
burnings ? " The prophet is here speaking of God's temporal 
judgments represented by fire.* "The earth mourneth; Leb- 
anon is ashamed; the people shall be as the burnings of lime." 
Who will dwell in safety amid these fiery judgments, — these 
aionian burnings? "He that walks uprightly." Earthly judg- 
ments among which the upright are to dwell in safety are here 
described, and not endless fire hereafter. Jer. xvii : 4, " Ye 
have kindled a fire in mine anger which shall burn forever." 
Where was this to be? The preceding verse informs us. "I 
will cause thee to serve thine enemies in a land which thou 
knowest not." Jer. xxiii: 40, "I will bring an everlasting 
reproach upon you; and a perpetual shame which shall not be 
forgotten." The connection fully explains this ; verse 39, — " I 
will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city 

23 rbv alcova nal elg top aluva ruv aluvog. 

6 



82 AION-AIONIOS. 

that I gave you and your fathers." See Jer. xx : 11 . Mai. i : 4, 
"The people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever" 
This is-an announcement of God's judgment on Eclom : " They 
shall build but I will throw down ; and they shall call them 
the border of wickedness, and the people against whom the 
Lord hath indignation forever." 

Dan. xii : 2, "And many of them that sleep in the dust of 
the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to 
shame and everlasting contempt." When was this to take 
place? "At that time." What time? Verse 31, chap, xi, speaks 
of the coming of "the abomination that maketh desolate." 
Jesus says, (Matt, xxiv: 15, 16; Luke xxi: 20, 21,) "When ye, 
therefore (the disciples), shall see the abomination of desola- 
tion, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, 
then let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains. And 
when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then 
know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which 
are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in 
the midst of it depart out ; and let not them that are in the 
countries enter thereinto." Daniel says this was to be (xii : 
7), "When he shall have accomplished to scatter the power 
of the holy people." And he says, "At that time there shall 
be a time of trouble, such as there never was since there was a 
nation, even to that same time." Jesus says, "For then shall 
be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of 
the world to this time; no, nor ever shall be." And Jesus tells 
us when that was, "This generation shall not pass away till 
all these things be fulfilled." The events described in Daniel 
are the same as those in Matt, xxiv, and came in this world, in 
the generation that crucified Jesus. 

The phrase, "sleeping in the dust of the earth," is of 
course employed above figuratively, to indicate sloth, spiritual 
lethargy, as in Ps. xliv : 25 ; Isa. xxv : 12, xxvi : 5 ; I. Tim. v : 6. 
E-ev. iii : 1, " For our soul is bowed down to the dust." "And 
the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, 
lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust." " For he 
bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he 



USAGE — THE OLD TESTAMENT. 83 

layeth it low ; lie layeth it low even to the ground ; he bringeth 
it even to the dust." "But she that liveth in pleasure is dead 
while she liveth." "I know thy works; that thou hast a 
name, and that thou livest and art dead." It was a 
23rophecy of the moral awakening that came at the 
advent of Jesus, and was then fulfilled. When we come 
to Matt, xxiv and xxv we shall see the nature of this judg- 
ment. Balfour describes it, 24 "They" (those who obeyed 
the call of Jesus), "heard the voice of the Son of God, and 
lived. (See John v: 21, 25, 28, 29; Eph. v: 14.) The rest 
kept on till the wrath of God came on them to the utter- 
most. They all, at last, awoke ; but it was to shame and ever- 
lasting contempt, in being dispersed among all nations, and 
they have become a by- word and an hissing even unto this day. 
Jeremiah, in chapter xxiii: 39, 40, predicted this very punish- 
ment and calls it an ' everlasting reproach and a perpetual 
shame.'" 

These few passages, not one of which conveys a hint of 
endless punishment, are all that connect our word with punish- 
ment in the Old Testament. 

Prof. S. C. Bartlett, D. D., of Dartmouth College, declares 
that the intrinsic meaning of the word rendered everlasting in 
the Old Testament is endless duration. He says : 25 — " Univer- 
salists make much parade of a few instances in which the 
Hebrew term for 'everlasting' denotes something less than 
absolute eternity, as 'the everlasting hills.' But the phrase, 
when applied to future time, always denotes the longest 
duration of which its subject is capable. ' Everlasting hills ' 
are those which will continue to the end of the world. ' He 
shall serve thee forever/ i. e., during the longest period of 
which he is capable, — his whole life. Hannah devoted Samuel 
to the Lord ' forever,' (I. Sam. i : 22) ; i. e., he was never to 
return to private life. ' An ordinance forever,' is one which 
lasts through the whole dispensation of which it is a part. 



24 Second Inquiry. 25 Modern Universalism, p. 82. 



84: AION-AIONIOS. 

Such cases, few in number, do not contravene in spirit the 
scores of instances in which it signifies absolute eternity, the 
original and proper sense of the term." 

Now, 1. If absolute eternity were the meaning of the word, 
it is only used in its true sense when applied to God, foi 
"absolute eternity" is without beginning as well as without 
end, and can only belong to God. 

2. It is used with limited duration in the great majority 
of cases in the Bible, as we show specifically. 

3. It is not generally used to mean " the longest duration 
of which its subject is capable." Take the " everlasting hills " 
referred to by Dr. Bartlett,— -every one of them is in process of 
destruction, and will one day be destroyed, before the earth 
shall be ; for " every valley shall be exalted, and every moun- 
tain and hill shall be made low," Isa. xl : 4. Besides, the term 
is applied in the Bible to hills that had already been destroyed ! 
Hab. iii : 6, " The everlasting hills were scattered." So of 
another passage quoted by Dr. Bartlett, — "He shall serve thee 
forever." It was not to be during the whole life, but on the 
recurrence of the year of jubilee the service expired by a 
statute of limitation, with which Dr. Bartlett should be familiar. 
This demonstrates the error of his dictum that when the word 
does not mean " absolute eternity," it means as long as the 
duration of the dispensation of which it is a part. 

4. He begs the whole question, by asserting the tiling to 
be proved. Suppose punishment were to last "as long as the 
dispensation of which it is a part," the main question will 
return, How long is that, — what is that dispensation ? "What 
is it that punishment is inflicted for ? When we answer, Sin, 
we meet Dr. Bartlett on his own ground, and annihilate him 
with his own sword, turned upon himself. When we consider 
sin as the act of a finite being, and punishment as the act of a 
merciful Father, to eradicate sin, seonian punishment must, 
from the nature of things, be limited. God's child is sin-sick. 
Will the wise and good Physician-father j)hysic the patient for 
ever, or cure him ? It is necessary for Dr. Bartlett to prove 
that the punishment of the Father is in its nature and necessa- 



USAGE — THE OLD TESTAMENT. 85 

rily endless, before he can apply his own false definition to 
the word. 

Thus this author manages in one brief paragraph to be 
false in his alleged statement of facts ; false in his application 
even of his own false statements; false in his exegesis, and 
thoroughly erroneous throughout. 



If endless punishment awaits millions of the human race, 
and if it is denoted by this word, how could it be possible that 
only David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Malachi should use 
it to define the duration of punishment, less than a dozen times, 
while Job, Moses, Joshua, Ruth, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Solo- 
mon, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, 
Nalram, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, and Zachariah never 
employ it thus? Such reticence would be criminal, on the 
popular hypothesis. These holy men should and would have 
made every sentence bristle with the word, and thus have 
borne the awful message to the soul with an emphasis that 
could be neither resisted nor disputed. The fact that it is so 
seldom, and by so few, applied to punishment, and never in 
the Old Testament to jranishment beyond death, demonstrates 
that it cannot mean endless. 



The best critics concede that the doctrine of endless pun- 
ishment is not taught in the Old Testament. But the word in 
dispute is found in connection with punishment in the Old 
Testament. This is a concession on their part that the word 
has no such meaning in the Old Testament, as endless dura- 
tion. Milman : — " The lawgiver (Moses) maintains a profound 
silence on that fundamental article, if not of political, at least 
of religious, legislation — rewards and punishments of another 
life." Warburton : — "In no one place of the Mosaic institutes 
is there the least mention of the rewards and punishments of 
another lif e." Paley, Jahn, and Whateley are to the same purport, 



86 AION-AIONIOS. 

and H. W. Beecher says, "If we had only the Old Testament we 
could not tell if there were any future punishment." £6 

Nothing can be more certain than that the general mean- 
ing of all forms of the word in the Old Testament is limited 
duration. 



Four questions here press the mind with irresistible 
force, and they can receive only one answer. 1. Had God 
intended endless punishment, would the Old Testament have 
failed to reveal it clearly, unmistakably? 2. If God does not 
announce it in the Old Testament, is it supposable that he has 
revealed it elsewhere ? 3. "Would he for thousands of years con- 
ceal so awful a destiny from millions whom he had created and 
exposed to it? 4. If not in the Old Testament, among the 
severe penalties of the law, ought we to expect to find it in the 
milder messages of Gospel grace? No Christian ought 
to be willing to impeach his Heavenly Father by withholding 
an indignant negative to these questions. 



USAGE.— HL— JEWISH GREEK. 



Unfortunately but very little Jewish- Greek literature, 
contemporary with Christ and his apostles, survives. The 
targums are of dates long subsequent to the Christian era, so 
that they can throw little light on the meaning of words among 
the Greek-speaking Jews at the time of Christ. By contact 
with the heathen, and from other causes, they had greatly degen- 



26 Hist. Jews, Vol. II., p. 117 ; Div. Leg., Vol. III., pp. 1-2, Vol. V. ; Sermon 
XIII. Archaeology, p. 398 ; Essays, p 44. Christian Union. 



USAGE — JEWISH GREEK. 87 

erated in their religious ideas, and the traditions and fables 
contained in the targums are of slight value in the discussion 
of the great question of man's destiny. 

But of the Jews who were contemporary with Christ we 
may safely make one assertion : they used the word under con- 
sideration precisely as it was used in the Old Testament. They 
were diligent students of the Septuagint, and they could put 
no construction on our word different from that which we have 
seen it to carry in the Greek Scriptures, with which they were 
jDerfectly familiar. 

We find the truth of this statement established as we con- 
sult Josephus, who applies the word to the imprisonment to 
which John, the tyrant, was condemned by the Romans; to the 
reputation of Herod; to the memorial erected in re-building 
the temple, already destroyed when he wrote ; to the worship 
in the temple, which, in the same sentence, he says was 
destroyed ; to the glory acquired by soldiers, and he styles the 
time between the promulgation of the law and Iris writing, a 
long aidn. 1 To accuse him of attaching any other meaning 
than that of indefinite duration to the word, is to accuse him 
of stultifying himself. In his treatise on Daniel, he says, 
"He was held in the greatest favor and honor by kings and 
2)eople, whilst he lived ; and, having died, he is still held in 
{[ivrjiirjv al&viov) eternal remembrance." In his work against 
Apion, "It is plain from this fact, how much faith we have in 
these writings ; for no one has dared, so long a time having 
already passed away (roaov-ov al&voe ?/J? Trapux^oroc), to add any- 
thing, nor to diminish, nor to change anything." 

i The way in which Josephus uses the word can be seen in the following 
instances of its application to temporal affairs. He speaks of the fame of an 
army as "a happy life, and aeonian glory." Ant. Jud., Lib. IV., Cap. 6, § 5, 
tvdaiuuva fiiuv ml k?l€oq aluviov irafma^eiv etc.,— tt gloria donet immortali. 
He calls a memorial aeonian,— Ant. Jud., Lib. I., C. 13, § 4, ml [xvt/iitjv aluv/.av 
—in sempitema memoria. Ant. Jud., Lib. XII., C. 7, § 3, altoviov ttjv zvnAuav 
etc.,— vos ceternam manere gloriam, etc. Ant. Jud., Lib. XV., C. 11, § 1, ml 
-pbc alwvtov jivrjiirjv aCKEC£Lv } —atque futurum acl sempilernam. See also ib., 
Lib. IV., C. 6, § 5 ; Lib. XV., C. 15, § 5 ; De Bello, Lib. VI., C. 2, § 1 ; C. 9, § 4. 



88 AION-AIONIOS. 

But when lie wishes to describe endless duration he 
employs other and unequivocal terms. Of the doctrine of the 
Pharisees, he says, 2 "They believe that spirits possess a death- 
less vigor, and that under the earth there will be rewards and 
punishments, as they have lived virtuously or wickedly in this 
life, and that these last are to be kept in an eternal imprison- 
ment (eirgmon aid ion), etc." 

Again, 3 "Of the two first named, the Pharisees are regarded 
as most skilful in interpreting their laws, and constitute the 
first sect. They ascribe everything to fate and to God, but 
allow that to do what is right is mainly within the power of 
men, though fate always cooperates. All souls are incorrupt- 
ible, but while those of good men are removed into other 
bodies, those of bad men are subject to eternal punishment, 
(a'idios limofia)." 

Elsewhere he says that the Essenes "Allot to bad souls a 
dark, tempestuous place, full of never-ceasing punishment (tim- 
oria adialeipton), where they suffer a deathless punishment 
(athanaton timorian)." It is true that he sometimes applies 
aionion to punishment, but this is not his usual custom, and 
he seems to have done this as one might use the word great to 
denote eternal duration, that is, an indefinite term to describe 
infinity. But a'idion and athanaton are his favorite terms. 
These are unequivocal. Were only aionion used to define 
the Jewish idea of the duration of future punishment, we should 
have no proof that it was supposed by them to be endless. 

2 Ant. Jud., Lib. XVIII., C. 1, § 3, ' Atiavarov re io%vv rait; ipvxcug TrioTtg 
avTolc Hvai, Kal v~b %6ovbg diKatuaeig re ml Tifiag olg aperj/g fj KaKtag 
£7ri~?}6eacir ev ru j3ici) yeyove, ml ralg pev elpypbv aidiov, etc. 

3 I3e Bello Jud., B. II., C. S, § 14, Abo 6e Tcportpuv tyapicaloi pev, oi 
doKovvreg /uerd ciKpi&elag egrp/tioBai ra voutua Kal ryv irpuTTjv e—dyovreg 
a'ipeoiv, 6iju.app.einj re Kal Qlu TzpocaTTTOVGl Travra, Kal to /uev Trpdrreiv ra 
iVtKcua Kal /urj, Kara, to ir^AelaTov ettI Tolg dvt)p6—otg Kticdai, j3o?fteiv de elg 
emarov Kal r//v eipapp'evryv ipvxyv $£ ~aoav pev dcptlapTov, peTa&aivetv 6e 
elg erepov cC)ua tijv tuv ayaduv povr/v, tt/v tie ruv (pavAcov aid'uj Tcuupia 
Kold^eotiai. 



USAGE — JEWISH GREEK. 89 

Philo, who was contemporary with Christ, generally used 
aidion to denote endless, and aidnion to describe temporary 
duration. Dr. Mangey, in his edition of Philo, says he never 
used amnion for interminable duration. He uses the exact 
phraseology of Matthew xxv: 46, precisely as Christ used it. 
"It is better not to promise than not to give prompt assistance, 
for no blame follows in the former case, but in the latter there 
is dissatisfaction from the weaker class, and a deep hatred and 
everlasting punishment 4 from such as are more powerful. " 5 
Here we have the precise terms employed by our Lord, which 
show that aidnion did not mean endless, but did mean limited 
duration, in the time of Christ. Speaking of the solicitude of 
the brute for its offspring, he observes, 6 "Perceiving from 
afar with a long-reaching {aionia) sagacity." Philo adopts 
athanaton, ateleuteion, or aidion, to denote endless, and 
aionion for temporary duration. In one place occurs this 
sentence concerning the wicked, 7 £?p> a-oftvyGKovra ad nal 
rp6~ov-Lva davarov a^dvarov vrroueivuv not areV.evrrjrnv, "to live alwavs 
dying, and to undergo, as it were, an immortal and intermin- 
able death." 

Stephens, in his Thesaurus, quotes from a Jewish work, 8 — 
"These they calied aioiiios, hearing that they had performed 
the sacred rites for three entire generations." 9 This shows 
conclusively that the expression "three generations" was then 
one full equivalent of aionion. 

Now, these eminent scholars were Jews who wrote in 
Greek, and who certainly knew the meaning of the words they 
employed, and they give to the seonian words the meaning 



i KoAaaiq aiuvtoq. 

5 Fragmenta, Tom. II., p. 6G7, ed. Mangey, 1741. 

6 De Humanitate, Tom. II., pp. 396-7. 

' De Prsemiis and Poenis, Tom. II., pp. 1 9-20, Mangey's ed. 

» Solom. Parab. 

o Beecher, Hist. Fut. Ret., pp. 73-75. Dollinger, quoted by Beecher. Philo 
was born twenty-five years before Christ, and was learned in Greek philoso- 
phy,— especially reverenced Plato. His use of Greek "words would be per- 
fectly accurate, and is of the highest authority. 



90 AION-AIONIOS. 

that we are contending for, — indefinite duration, to be deter- 
mined by the subject treated. 

Thus the Jews of our Savior's time avoided using the 
word aionion to denote endless duration, for, applied all 
through the Bible to temporary affairs, it would not teach it. 
If he had intended to inculcate the doctrine held by the Jews, 
Jesus would certainly have used their terms. But he threatened 
age-lasting, or long-enduring discipline to the believers in end- 
less punishment. Aionion was his word, while theirs was 
a'idion, adialeipton, or athanaton. He thus rejected their doc- 
trines, by not only not employing their phraseology, but by 
using only those words connected with punishment that denote 
limited duration. 

It is sometimes said that Jesus adopted the phraseology 
current at the time he spoke, and used by others to convey the 
idea of interminable torment ; but we have now shown that he 
did nothing of the kind. Instead of thanaton athanaton, 
immortal death ; eirgmon a'idion, eternal imprisonment ; a'idion 
timorian, eternal torment, and thanaton ateleuteton, inter- 
minable death, he used aionion kolasin, the adjective denot- 
ing limited duration, and the noun suffering, issuing in amend- 
ment. 10 Not only did he refuse to indorse the views of the Jews, 
acquired from the heathen, but he absolutely condemned them. 
Eeferring to the cruel men who procured his death, Jesus 
said to his disciples, 11 "Take heed and beware of the leaven 
(doctrine) of the Pharisees and the Sadducees" (believers in 
endless misery and believers in destruction). Had aionion 
been the strongest word, especially had it unequivocally 
denoted endless duration, who does not see that it would have 
been in general use as applied to punishment by the Jewish 
Greeks, of nineteen centuries ago, who believed in endless 
punishment, but who stated it in stronger words than the 
seonian phraseology ? 

10 For an exposition of kolasin, rendered punishment in Matt, xxv: 46, 
see next chapter. 
n Matt. xvi:6. 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 91 

Now, does not the fact that the Jewish Greeks contem- 
porary with Christ generally used other words, and those that 
are stronger, as we shall show when we corne to treat the New 
Testament usage, when they defined that endless punishment 
in which they were believers, and employed seonian words to 
describe temporary duration, demonstrate that the Ionian 
words did not then denote endless duration? And if such 
was not their meaning then, is it not preposterous to suppose 
that Jesus gave to them such a meaning — one that no one else 
had ever given them, and one that no one would understand 
them to signify ? 

We thus have an unbroken chain of Lexicography, and 
Classic, Old Testament, and Contemporaneous Usage, all 
allowing to the word the meaning we claim for it, so that we 
are compelled, as we open the New Testament, to expect to 
find it employing the reonian terms in the sense of limited 
duration. 



USAGE.— IV.— THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

Nothing can be more evident than that Jesus and his 
Apostles used all words in exactly the sense they had in the 
Old Testament. To give words that were found in the Old 
Testament new meanings, with no intimation of a change, 
would be to mislead those who should hear or read them. 
Such a course should be insupposable. Instead of being 
quoted from the Hebrew Bible, more than five-sixths of the 
Old Testament passages in the New Testament are directly 
from the LXX. The Septuagint was the Bible referred to by 
Christ and the Apostles. The word whose biography we are 



92 AION-AIONIOS. 

writing, therefore, must have the same meaning in the New 
Testament as in the LXX. This we have seen to be indefinite 
duration.. An examination of the New Testament will show 
that the meaning is the same as in the Old Testament. 

The different forms of the word occur in the New Testa- 
ment one hundred and ninety-nine times; the noun one hun- 
dred and twenty-eight, and the adjective seventy-one times. In 
the Established Yersion the noun is rendered seventy-two times 
ever, twice eternal, thirty-six times world, seven times never, 
three times evermore, twice worlds, twice ages, once course, 
once world without end, and twice it is passed over without 
any word affixed as a translation of it. The adjective is ren- 
dered once ever, forty-two times eternal, three times world, 
twenty-five times everlasting, and once former ages. 

1. It is ten times applied to the ldngdom of Christ. Luke 
i : 33, 35, "And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; 
and of his kingdom there shall be no end. As he sjDake to our 
fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed forever" (that is, 
anciently). Heb. vi : 20, "Whither the forerunner is for us 
entered, even Jesus, made a high priest forever after the 
order of Melchisedec." "For he testifieth (vii: 17, 21), Thou 
art a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec." II. Pet. i : 
11, "For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abun- 
dantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior 
Jesus Christ." (II. Pet. iii : 18 may mean endless duration, 
as may Eev. i: 6, and I. Pet. iv: 11). Bev. xi: 15, "And 
the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in 
heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the 
kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ ; and he shall reign 
forever and ever." But the passages that declare that Christ's 
kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and that he is to reign for- 
ever, must denote limited duration, for the reason that the 
kingdom of Christ is to end, and his reign cease, when he shall 
have delivered up the kingdom to the Father, as in I. Cor. xv : 
24, 25, "Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered 
up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have 
X3ut down all rule, and all authority and power. For he must 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 9d 

reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. " His reign 
is limited to the period when he shall have subdued all souls 
to God, and then the Son will be subject to the Father. So 
that a limited duration is taught in all the passages that call 
the reign of Christ everlasting, forever, etc. Kindred to this 
is Rev. xiv: 6, "The everlasting gospel." The gospel is good 
news. When all shall have learned its truths it will no longer 
be news. There will be no such thing as gospel extant. Faith 
will be fruition, hope lost in sight, and the amnion gospel, like 
the amnion covenant of the elder dispensation, will be abro- 
gated, not destroyed. 

2. It is applied to the Jewish age more than thirty times : 
I. Cor. x: 11, "Now all these things happened unto them for 
ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon 
whom the ends of the icorld are come." Matt, xii : 32, "And 
whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be 
forgiven him ; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, 
it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this icorld, neither in 
the world to come." Xiii : 22, 39, 40, 49, "He also that received 
seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word ; and the 
care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the 
word, and he becometh unfruitful. The enemy that sowed 
them is the devil ; the harvest is the end of the icorld, and the 
reapers are the angels. As, therefore, the tares are gathered 
and burned in the fire : so shall it be in the end of this world. 
So shall it be at the end of the world ; the angels shall come 
forth, and sever the wicked from among the just." Xxiv: 3, 
"What shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the 
icorld ?" Xxviii: 20, "Teaching them to observe all things 
whatsoever I have commanded you : and, lo, I am with you 
alway, even unto the end of the icorld." Mark iv: 19, "And 
the cares of this icorld, and the deceitfulness of riches, and 
the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it 
becometh unfruitful." Consult also Luke i : 70, xvi : 8, xx : 34 ; 
John ix : 32 ; Acts iii : 21, xv : 18 ; Eom. xii : 2 ; I. Cor. ii : 6, 7, 
8, iii: 18; II. Cor. iv: 4; Gal. i: 4; Eph. i : 21, ii: 2, iii: 9; II. 



94: AION-AIONIOS. 

Tim. iv : 10 ; Titus ii : 12 ; Heb. ix : 26. The last citation above 
exemplifies the use, " But now once in the end of the ivorld 
hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." 
The world here referred to is alon, and its manifest meaning 
is the Jewish age. But that ended with the establishment of 
the kingdom of Christ. So that the word signifies limited 
duration in all these passages. 

3. It is used in the plural in Eph. iii : 21, "The age of the 
ages," tou aionos ton aionon. Heb. i : 2, xi : 3, "By whom he 
made the worlds. The ivorids were framed by the word of 
God." There can be but one eternity. To say, "By whom 
he made the eternities," would be to talk nonsense. Endless 
duration is not inculcated in these texts. 

4. The word clearly teaches finite duration in such passages 
as Rom. xvi: 25; II. Cor. iv: 17; II. Tim. i: 9; Philemon 15; 
Titus i: 2. Bead Rom. xvi: 25, "Since the ivorld began." 
H. Cor. iv: 17, "A far more exceeding and eternal weight of 
glory." Here "and" is a word supplied by the translators, and 
the literal is "an excessively exceeding seonian weight." But 
endless cannot be exceeded. Therefore aionion does not 
here mean eternal. 

5. The word is used as equivalent to not or a long time, in 
Matt, xxi: 19; Mark xi: 14; John xiii: 8; I. Cor. viii: 13. 
"Peter said unto him 'Thou shalt never wash my feet,' " is a 
specimen of this use of the word. 

6. It is applied to life, "everlasting and eternal life." But 
this phrase does not so much denote the duration, as the qual- 
ity of the blessed life. It seems to have the sense of durable, 
rather than endless, in these passages : Matt, xix : 16, 29, xxv : 
46 ; Mark x : 17, 30 ; Luke x : 25, xvi : 9, xviii : 18, 30 ; John iii : 
15, 16, 36, iv : 14, 36, v : 24, 39, vi : 27, 40, 47, 54, 68, x : 28, xii : 
25, 50, xvii: 2, 3; Rom. ii: 7, v: 21, vi: 22, 23; Gal. vi: 8; II. 
Thess. ii : 16 ; I. Tim. i : 16, vi : 12 ; Titus i : 2, iii : 7 ; Heb. v : 
9 ; I. John i : 2, ii : 25, iii : 15, v : 11, 13, 20 ; Jude 21 ; Mark x : 
30; Luke xviii: 30; John iv: 14, vi: 51, 58, viii: 51, 52, x: 28, 
xi: 26. See this subject treated further on, when it will be 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 95 

fully shown that "everlasting life" is not the immortal exis- 
tence hereafter, but the life of faith here or hereafter, regard- 
less of its duration. 

7. It is applied to God, Christ, the Gospel, the good, the res- 
urrection world, etc., in which the sense of endless is allowable 
because imputed to the word by the subject treated, as 
declared by Schleusner, on pages 33-37 of this book. See 
Eom. i: 25, ix: 5, xi: 36, xvi: 27; Gal. i: 5; Phil, iv: 20; I. 
Tim. i : 17 ; II. Tim. iv : 18 ; I. John ii : 17 ; I. Peter v : 11 ; Rev. 
vii : 12, xv : 7 ; Kom. xvi : 26 ; II. Cor. iv : 18, v : 1 ; II. Tim. ii . 
10; Hebrews vi: 2; ix: 12, 14, 15, xiii: 20; I. Peter v: 10; 
John viii: 35, xii: 34, xiv: 16; II. Corinthians ix: 9, xi: 31; 
Ephesians iii: 11; Hebrews vii: 24, 28, xiii: 8, 21; I. 
Peter i : 25 ; II. Peter iii : 18 ; II. John 2 ; Jude 25 ; Rev. i: 18, 
iv : 9, 10, v : 13, x : 6, xxii : 5. The sense of endless is permis- 
sible in these passages, just as the word great would acquire a 
meaning when attached to these subjects, that it would not ordi- 
narily possess. 

By considering several passages it will be seen that the 
word cannot have the sense of endless. Matt, xiii: 22, "The 
care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the 
word," the cares of that age or "time." Verses 39, 40, 49, 
"The harvest is the end of the world," i. e., age, Jewish age. 
The same as taught in Matt, xxiv, which some who heard Jesus 
speak were to live to see, and did see. Luke i : 33, "And he 
(Jesus) shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his 
kingdom there shall be no end." The meaning is, he shall 
reign to the ages (els tons aionas). That long, indefinite 
duration is meant here but limited, is evident from I. Cor. 
xv : 28, "And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then 
shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all 
things under him, that God may be all in all." His reign is 
forever, i. e., to the ages, but it is to cease. Luke i : 55, "As 
he spake to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever, 
(eos aionos) that is, anciently. Luke i : 70, "As he spake by 
the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the 
world began," or "from of old," (ap aionos). Luke xvi: 8, 



96 AION-AIONIOS. 

"For the children of this world are in their generation wiser 
than the children of light." That is, the people of that time 
were more prudent in the management of their affairs than 
were the Christians of that day in their plans. John ix: 32, 
"Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened 
the eyes of one that was born blind." From the age (ek ton 
aionos), that is, from the beginning of our knowledge and his- 
tory. Rom. xvi : 25, "Since the world began," clearly shows a 
duration less than eternity, inasmuch as the mystery that had 
been secret since the world began, was then revealed. The 
mystery was* aionion but did not last eternally. It was "now 
made manifest" "to all nations." Phil, iv : 20, "Now unto God 
and our Father be glory forever and ever" for the ages of the 
ages (eis tous aiOnas ton aionon). (Gal. i : 5, same.) "For the 
eternities of the eternities," is an absurd expression. But ages 
of ages is proper. Eternity may be meant here, but if the word 
axon expressed the idea, such a reduplication would be weak 
and improper. I. Tim. vi : 17, "Charge them that are rich in 
this world," (age or time). I. Tim. i: 17, "Now to the King 
eternal (of the ages) be glory for the ages of the ages." "What 
is this but an ascription to the God of the ages ? Eternity can 
only be meant here, as ages on ages imply long, and possibly 
endless duration. "All the ages are God's ; him let the ages 
glorify," is the full import of the words. Translate the words 
eternity, and what nonsense : Now to the God of eternities be 
glory for the eternities of the eternities. Heb. i : 8, "The age 
of the age." Ex^h. ii: 7, "That in the ages (alons) to come he 
might show the exceeding riches of his grace." Here at least 
two a Ions are to come. Certainly one of them must end 
before the other begins. Eph. iii : 21, "The generations of the 
age of the ages." II. Tim. iv : 18, " The ages of the ages." The 
same form of expression is in Heb. xiii: 21; I. Peter iv. 11; 
Rev. i : 6, iv : 9, v : 13, vii : 12, xiv : 11, xv : 7, xx : 10. When we 
read that the smoke of torment ascends (eis tons aionas ton 
aionon) for ages of ages, we get the idea of long, but limited 
duration ; for as an age is limited, any number, however great, 
must be limited. The moment we say the smoke of their tor- 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 97 

ment goes up for eternities of eternities, we transform the 
sacred rhetoric into jargon. There is but one eternity; there- 
fore, as we read of more than one a ion, it follows that aion 
cannot mean eternity. Again, I. Cor. x: 11, "Our admonition, 
on whom the ends of the axons (ages, ta tele ton aionon) 
have come." That is, the close of the Mosaic and the begin- 
ning of the Gospel age. How absurd to say "ends of the 
eternities" ! Here the apostle had passed more than one, and 
entered, consequently, upon at least a third, a Ion. Heb. ix: 
26, "Now at an end of the ages." Matt, xiii: 39, 40, xxiv: 4, 
"The conclusion of the age." Eternity has no end, and to 
say end of eternity is to talk nonsense. II. Tim. i: 9, 
"Before the world began," i. e., before the aiOnion times 
began. There was no beginning to eternity, therefore the 
adjective aionion here has no such meaning as eternal. The 
fact that aion is said to end and begin, is a demonstration that 
it does not mean eternity. 

Translate the word eternity in most of these passages and 
how absurd the Bible becomes ! Gal. i : 5, "To whom be the 
glory during the eternities, even to the eternities." I. Cor. 
x : 11, "Now all these things happened unto them, for ensam- 
ples, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the 
ends of the eternities are come." Eph. ii: 7, "That in the 
eternities coming he might show the exceeding riches of his 
grace." Col. i : 26, "The mystery which hath been hid from the 
eternities and from the generations." Heb. ix : 26, "But now 
once in the end of the eternities, hath he appeared to put 
away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Matt, xiii: 39, "The 
harvest is the end of the eternity." Matt, xiii: 40, "So shall 
it be in the end of this eternity." Matt, xxiv: 4, "Tell us 
when shall these things be, and what the sign of thy coming, 
and of the end of the eternity." But substitute "age" or "ages," 
and the sense of the Record is preserved. It will be seen that 
if eternity is the English equivalent of aion, then we ought to 
read "this eternity," "that eternity," "since the eternity 
began," "from the beginning of the eternity," "while the eter- 
nity standeth," "in the eternities to come," "in the end of the 
7 



98 AION-AIONIOS. 

eternity," "a mystery hid from eternities," "eternity and 
eternity," and all manner of expressions that are unrhetorical, 
ungrammatical and utterly absurd. 

John B. Beard, D. D., author of "Bible Dictionary," 
Manchester, Eng., thus writes : — "For one moment let us 
dwell on that word — the word 'everlasting,' or 'eternal.' Now, 
in the first place, the readers of the English Bible have not to 
do with that word itself, but with a translation of it. Are the 
two identical in meaning? Do they each cover the same 
ground? Certainly not. Our conception of eternity is much 
more absolute than that of either the Greeks or the Hebrews, 
with whom the corresponding words denoted generally an 
indefinite and unknown period. Can we speak of eternities ? 
They could. Yea, 'eternities of eternities,' 'before the eter- 
nities,' and 'to the eternities of eternities,' are the forms of 
speech employed in the New Testament. What then ? There 
are several eternities, and eternities are appended to eterni- 
ties. Clearly the Greek original signifies much less than its 
English representative; and if anything less than endless, 
the word expresses time, and not what we call eternity. Then, 
the word is also used of subjects which in their nature are of 
limited duration. It is used of things. Is a thing imperish- 
able or perishable ? It is used of this world ; but this world 
passeth away. It is used of times ; times, however, can be 
nothing more than repeated years, days, and hours. It is 
used of fire ; but unquenchable fire is an impossibility, unless fire^ 
which, consuming other things, consumes itself, shares God's 
deathlessness. It is used of punishment ; but the punishment 
which does not end in reformation is vindictiveness, which 
cannot be ascribed to the merciful Father, whose name and 
whose essence is love." 

"We read in the New Testament of the beginning of 
axon. The beginning of aion is spoken of in Luke i : 70 
(k' alovng), of old, or anciently; John ix : 32 ('e/c mv altivor), from 
the memory of man ; Acts iii : 21, and xv : 18 ((nr' altivog), of old, 
anciently; Eph. iii : 9 (and tuv aitivov), from the ages, of the old 
dispensation. 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 99 

There are many repetitions of axon. The word is repeated 
in the following passages, to express very great duration: 
Rev. i : 18, "And behold, I am alive (elg rovg aluvag ruv aluvuv), for 
ages of ages." Eph. iii : 21 (elg rrdoag rag yeveag rov aluvog ruv aluvuv), 
literally, according to Macknight, "through all the eras of the 
age of ages." I. Tim. i : 17, "To the king of ages (ruv aluvuv), the 
immortal, the incorruptible, and the God only wise, be glory and : 
honor for ages of ages (elg rovg aluvag ruv aluvuv )." Rev. xiv : 11, 
"The smoke of their torment goeth up (elg aiuvag aluvuv) for 
ages and ages." Sir Isaac Newton says, 1 "The ascending 
up of the smoke of any burning thing forever and ever, is 
put for the continuation of a conquered people under the 
misery of perpetual subjection and slavery." See Gal. i:5; 
Phil, iv : 20 ; II. Tim. iv : 18 ; Heb. i : 8, and xiii : 21 ; I. Peter 
iv : 11, and v : 11 ; Rev. iv : 9, 10, and v : 13, 14, and vii : 12, and 
x : 6, and xi : 15, and xv : 7, and xix : 3, and xx : 10, and xxii : 5. 

It means more titan eternal. If aion signifies eternity, 
and aionios eternal, then there is nothing more, or beyond 
eternity, or eternal. But the apostle (II. Cor. iv: 17) uses the 
remarkable phrase (naff ircepSo/.^v elg virep/3ol^v aluvtov pdpogdo^g), 
exceeding eternal to an excess. If axon signifies eternity, then 
(in Dan. xii : 3) we read, to eternities, and further (elg roi<g aiuvag 
ml hi). In Ex. xv : 18, "The Lord shall reign (rbv aluva ml eiv 
aluva Kal hi) from eternity even to eternity, and further." In 
Micah iv: 5, "We will walk in the name of the Lord our God 
(elg rbv aluva Kal eireiceiva) to eternity and beyond." Dan. vii: 18, 
"to eternity, even to an eternity of an eternity." Ps. xlviii : 14, 
"For this God is our God (elg rbv aluva aai elg rbv aluva rov aluvog), 
to an age, and to an age of an age." The phrase, "to an age, and to 
an age of an age," or, "to eternity, and to an eternity of an eter- 
nity," may be found, Ps. cxix : 44, and cxiv : 2, 21, and cxlviii : 6. 2 

It acquires various meanings. This is seen in many pas- 
sages. Luke xx : 34,35, "The children of this world marry, 

i Prophecies of Daniel and Revelations, London Edition, 1738, p. 18. 
2 This aion, the aibn, that aion occur twenty-seven times in the New Tes- 
tament. This or that age is proper, but this or that eternity is not. 



100 AION-AIONIOS. 

and are given in marriage ; but they which shall be accounted 
worthy to obtain that world, . . . are equal unto the angels," 
etc. Here "that world" (tou aionos) denotes the eternal world, 
not because the word intrinsically means that, but because 
the resurrection state is the topic of discourse. The words 
literally mean that age or epoch, but in this instance the 
immortal world is the subject that defines the word and extends 
its meaning. So when the word refers to God, it denotes a 
different duration than when it applies to the Jewish dispen- 
sation. That in some of the places referred to the mooted 
word has the sense of endless, we do not question, but in all 
such cases it derives that meaning from the subject connected 
with it. 

A ion occurs in the New Testament sixty-three times in 
the singular, eighteen times in the plural, twenty-three times 
in a reduplicate form, — in all, one hundred and four times. 

It is found twenty times "this world," six "the world," once 
"that world" : Matt, xii : 22, 39, 40, 49, xiii : 32, xxiv : 3, xxviii : 20 ; 
Mark iv : 19 ; Luke i : 70, xvi : 8, xx : 34, 35 ; Acts iii : 21 ; Eom. 
xii : 2 ; I. Cor. i : 20, ii : 6, (twice) 8, iii : 18 ; II. Cor. iv : 4 ; Gal. 
i:4; Eph. i: 21, ii: 2, vi: 12; I. Tim. vi: 17; II. Tim. iv: 10; 
Tit.ii:12. 

It is rendered twenty times "forever," seven times "never," 
three times the "world to come," two "ever," one "since the world 
began," one "from the beginning of the world," one "while the 
world standeth," and one time "f orevermore." The places are 
as follows : — Matt, xxi : 19 ; Mark x : 30, xi : 14 ; Luke i : 55, 
xviii: 30; John iv: 14, vi: 51, 58, viii: 35 (twice), 51, 52, ix:32, 
x : 28, xi : 26, xii : 34, xiii : 8, xiv : 16 ; Acts xv : 18 ; I (3or. viii : 
13; II. Cor. ix: 9; Heb. v: 6, vi: 5, 20, vii : 17, 21, 24, 28; I. 
Pet. i : 23, 25 ; II. Pet. iii : 18 ; I. John ii : 17 ; II. John 2. 

It is found eighteen times in the plural form. Three times 
translated "the world," twice "the worlds," and one time "the 
ages" : I. Cor. ii : 7, x : 11 ; Eph. ii : 7 ; Heb. i : 2, ix : 26, xi : 3. 
It is seven times rendered "forever," twice "eternal," one time 
"f orevermore," one time "from the beginning of the world," 
and one time "ages": — Matt, vi : 13; Luke i: 33; Rom. i: 25> 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 101 

ix : 5, xi : 36, xvi : 27 ; II. Cor. xi : 31 ; Eph. iii : 9, 11 ; Col. i : 26 ; 
I. Tiin. i: 17; Heb. xiii: 8. 

It is in a doubled or redirplicate form twenty-three times : 
twenty-one times translated "forever and ever," one time 
"foreverinore," and one time "throughout all ages, world with- 
out end." This phrase is employed ten times to express the 
interminable duration of the glory of God, as follows: — Gal. i: 
5; Eph. iii: 21; Phil, iv: 20; I. Tim. i: 17; II. Tim. iv: 18; 
Heb. xiii : 21 ; I. Pet. iv : 11, v : 11 ; Rev. i : 6, vii : 12. It is 
four times used to express the eternity of Deity, Rev. iv: 9, 
10, x : 6, xv : 7 ; onee to denote the eternity of the throne of 
Jehovah, Heb. i : 8 ; once to express the immortality and 
eternity of Christ, Rev. i : 18 ; once to show the duration of 
Christ's reign, Rev. xi : 15 ; twice to express the duration of his 
glory, Rev. v: 13, 14; once to express the duration of the 
happiness of the redeemed, Rev. xxii : 5 ; once the duration of 
the punishment of those who had worshiped the beast and his 
image, Rev. xiv: 11; once the duration of the fire that shall 
burn Babylon, Rev. xix : 3 ; and once to denote the duration 
of the torment which the devil, the beast, and the false 
prophet shall endure in the lake of fire, Rev. xx; 10 : "Unto the 
ages of the ages." 

Dr. Whiton 3 observes : — "An examination of all the pas- 
sages in the New Testament, in which the word occurs, will 
yield the following results : — 1. That it denotes a period of dura- 
tion. 2. That it is used very frequently, much more often than 
by the Classic Greek, in the plural. This fact is in the way 
of the assertion that ceon has inherently the idea of infinite 
duration, for only finite things can have the plural. We can 
not speak of the coming eternities. But Paul speaks (Eph. 
ii : 7) of 'the ages {(eons) to come.' 3. That the present 
world-period or coiu'se of things, is spoken of this ceo?i, or 
the eeon, or an won. 4. That the period or course of things 
which is immediately to succeed the present is likewise called 
that ceori, or the ceon, or the coming ceon. 5. That past 

3 Is Eternal Punishment Endless ? pp. 11-13. 



102 AION-AIONIOS. 

duration, the course or courses of tilings that have preceded 
the present, is called the aeons, or simply ceons. 6. That 
future .duration, in its whole compass, is described as a 
succession of ceons. 7. That the regular phrases for unlimited 
duration, — for the aeons, or, for the oeons of the aeons, strictly 
denote an indefinite succession of finite periods or oeons. 
8. That there is no single word that regularly carries the 
meaning of our word eternity ." 

As day, the noun, possesses daily for its adjective, and 
month and monthly, year and yearly describe the same duration, 
whether the noun or adjective be employed, so the noun aion 
in Matt, xxiv : 3, must mean the same as aionios in Matt. 
xxv : 46. If the one is age or world, the other must be 
worldly or age-long; better still, aeonian. Eternal is utterly 
wrong. Or, if aionion in Matt, xxv : 46 meant endless, then the 
disciples must have asked Jesus in Matt, xxiv: 3, "What shall 
be the sign of the end of eternity !" 

A birds-eye view of the way in which the noun is used 
will serve to prove its limited time-sense. Matt, xxviii : 20, 
"End of the aeon.''' Mark iv: 19, "Cares of the aeon." Lukei: 
33, "Shall reign over the house of Jacob for the ceons." 
John iv : 14, "Shall not thirst for the aeon;' E. V., "forever." 
John ix: 32, "Since the aeon began." Kom. xii: 2, "Be not 
conformed to this aeon" I. Cor. ii : 7, "Before the aeons" 
I. Cor. x: 11, "The ends of the oeons are come." II. Cor. xi: 
31, "God blessed for the aeons." Eph. ii : 2, "According to 
the course of . the aeon." Eph. ii : 7, "The ceons to come." 
Eph. iii : 21, "To all the generations of the aeon of the aeons." 
I. Tim. i : 17, "The king of the aeons." Heb. i : 2, "He made 
the ceons," E. V. "worlds." Kev. iv: 9, "Who liveth to the 
aeons of the aeons," E. V., "forever and ever." 

Let us further indicate its varied use. Matt, vi : 13 is 
probably spurious, 4 "Thine is the glory forever," that is, 
through the ages. Here eternity may be implied, but the 
phrase "forever" literally means " for the ages." Mark x : 30, 

* Griesbach, Knapp, Wetstein. 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 103 

"But lie shall receive a hundred, fold noAv in tins time, houses, 
and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and 
lands, with persecutions ; and in the w or Id to come eternal 
life," literally, in the age to come, the life of that age, i. e., 
gospel, spiritual, Christian life. We have shown that the 
world to come denotes the Christian dispensation. Mark xi : 
14, "No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever," that is,"in the 
age," meaning the period of the tree's existence. John xii : 34, 
"The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that 
Christ abideth forever" (to the age). The Jews believed their 
dispensation was to continue, and that Messiah would remain 
so long as it would last. This language means that Christ was 
to remain through the Mosaic epoch. So the Jews thought. 
John xiii: 8, "Thou'shalt nev er wash my feet," is equivalent 
to "Thou shalt not wash my feet." John xiv: 16, "And I will 
pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter, 
that he may abide with you for ever" (els ion aiona), "unto 
the age," that is, acconrpany them into the coming or Chris- 
tian era. John vi : 51, 58, "If any man eat of this bread he 
shall live for ever" (els ton aiona), "into the age," that is, enjoy 
the life of the aeon that is to come, the Christian life. Its 
duration is not described here at all. John viii : 35, "And the 
servant abideth not in the house for ever (to the age); but 
the Son abideth ever." The Jews are here told that their 
religion is to be superseded by Christ. They are to leave the 
house because slaves to sin, while the Son will remain per- 
manently. John viii : 51, 52, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. Then said 
the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. 
Abraham is dead, and the prophets ; and thou sayest, If a man 
keep my saying he shall never taste of death." Moral, spirit- 
ual death is impossible to a man so long as he keeps the say- 
ings of Christ, is the full meaning of the words. 

The adjective aid7iios is (incorrectly) said by Professor 
Stuart 5 to occur sixty-six times in the New Testament, but we 

5 Ex. Essays, p. 46. 



104 AION-AIONIOS. 

make it seventy-two times. Of these, fifty-seven are used in 
relation to the happiness of the righteous ; three in relation 
to God, or his glory; four are of a miscellaneous nature; and 
seven relate to the subject of punishment. Now, these fifty- 
seven denote indefinite duration, "everlasting life" being a 
life that may or may not — certainly does not always — endure 
forever. Endless duration is allowable, when the subject 
compels it, but the general usage is otherwise. Of course, the 
adjective must mean the same as the noun. 

Thus, the preponderance of usage in the New Testament 
is limited duration. But if the preponderance were otherwise, 
we ought, in order to vindicate God's character, to understand 
the word in the sense of limited when describing a Father's pun- 
ishment of his children. But with more than one hundred and 
fifty out of one hundred and ninety-nine instances limited, we 
are prepared, regardless of other considerations, and guided 
only by the use of the word, to understand it as not conveying 
the force of endlessness when applied to punishment. 

In how many instances, in the entire New Testament, does 
the word in all its forms qualify punishment? Only fourteen 
times in thirteen passages -in the entire New Testament, and 
these were uttered on ten occasions only ! The noun, Matt, 
xii: 32; Mark iii: 29; II. Peter ii: 17; Jude 13; Kev. xiv: 11, 
xix: 3, xx : 10. The adjective, Matt. xviii:8, xxv:41, 46; 
Mark iii : 29 ; II. Thess. i : 9 ; Jude 7 ; Heb. vi : 2. 

Now, if God's punishments are limited, we can understand 
how this word should be used only fourteen times to define 
them. But if they are endless, how can we explain the employ- 
ment of this equivocal word connected with punishment only 
fourteen times in the entire New Testament? A doctrine that, 
if true, ought to crowd every sentence, frown in every line, 
only stated fourteen times, and that, too, by a word whose 
uniform meaning everywhere else is limited duration ! The 
idea is preposterous, incredible. If the word denote limited 
duration, the punishments threatened in the New Testament 
are like those that experience teaches follow transgression. 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 105 

But if it mean endless, how can we account for the fact that 
neither Luke nor John records one instance of its use by the 
Savior, and Matthew but four, and Mark but two, and Paul 
employs it but twice in his ministry, while John and James in 
their epistles never allude to it? Such silence is an unanswer- 
able refutation of all attempts to foist the meaning of endless- 
ness into the word. "Everlasting tire" occurs three times, 
"everlasting destruction," once," everlasting punishment" once, 
and "eternal damnation" once only. Shall any one suppose 
that the New Testament reveals endless torment, and that 
out of one hundred and ninety-nine occurrences of the word 
aion, it is applied to punishment so seldom, and that so many 
of those who wrote the New Testament never use the word at 
all? No. The New Testament usage agrees with the meaning 
in the Greek Classics, and in the Old Testament. Does it not 
strike the candid mind as impossible that God should have 
concealed this doctrine for thousands of years, and that for 
forty centuries of revelation he continually employed to teach 
limited duration the identical word that he at length stretched 
into the signification of endless duration ? The word means 
limited duration all through the Old Testament ; it never had 
the meaning of endless duration among those who spoke the 
Greek language (as we have demonstrated), but Jesus an- 
nounced the doctrine of endless iDimishment, and selected as 
the word to convey his meaning the very word that in the 
Classics and Septuagint never contained any such thought, 
when there were several words in the copious Greek tongue 
that unequivocally conveyed the idea of interminable dura- 
tion! Even if Matthew wrote in Hebrew or in Aramaic, 
he gave a Greek version of his gospel, and in that rejected 
every word that carries the meaning of endlessness, and appro- 
priated the one which taught nothing of the kind. If this 
were the blunder of an incompetent translator, or the imper- 
fect record of a reckless scribe, we could understand it, but 
to say that the inspired pen of the evangelist has deliberately 
or carelessly jeoparded the immortal welfare of countless mil- 
lions by employing a word to teach the doctrine of ceaseless 



106 AION-AIONIOS. 

woe that up to that very hour taught only limited duration, is 
to make a declaration that carries its own refutation. 

"We come now to the sheet-anchor of the great heresy of 
the partialist church, the principal proof -text of an error hoary 
with antiquity, and not yet wholly abandoned — endless punish- 
ment. Matt, xxv : 46, "These shall go away into everlasting 
punishment, and the righteous into life eternal." We shall 
endeavor to establish several points against the erroneous view 
of this Scripture. 1. The whole account is a parable. 2. The 
punishment is not for unbelief, but for not benefiting the 
needy. 3. The general antecedent usage of the word denoting 
duration, proves that the duration is limited. 4. One object 
of punishment being to improve the punished, the punishment 
must be limited. 5. The events here described took place in 
this world, and must therefore be of limited duration. 6. The 
Greek word kolasin, rendered punishment, should be trans- 
lated chastisement, as reformation is implied in its meaning. 

1. The account is generally regarded as a literal descrip- 
tion, but a careful reading shows that it is a parable, — "He will 
set the sheep on the right and the goats on the left." The sheep 
shall go into lif e eternal, and the goats into everlasting punish- 
ment. The sheep fed the hungry, clothed the naked, etc., while 
the goats were wanting in these kind offices. A kingdom was 
prepared for the sheep ; but the goats were to be penned with 
the devil. The entire account is a parable. 

2. The reonian punishment is for evil works. Practical 
benevolence is the virtue whose reward is here announced, and 
unkindness is the vice whose punishment is here threatened, 
and not faith and unbelief, on which heaven and hell are pop- 
ularly predicated. Matt, xxv : 34-45, "Then shall the King say 
unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, 
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of 
the world : for I was a hungered, and ye gave me meat : I 
was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye 
took me in : naked, and ye clothed me : I was sick, and ye 
visited me : I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 107 

the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee a 
hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in ? or naked, and 
clothed thee ? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and 
came unto thee ? And the King shall answer and say unto 
them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it 
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it 
unto me. Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, 
Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for 
the devil and his angels : for I was a hungered, and ye gave 
me no meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink : I was a 
stranger and ye took me not in : naked, and ye clothed me not : 
sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they 
also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee a hungered, 
or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and 
did not minister unto thee ? Then shall he answer them, say- 
ing, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of 
the least of these, ye did it not to me." If cruelty to the poor 
— neglect of them, even, — constitutes rejection of Christ — as is 
plainly taught here — and all who are guilty are to suffer endless 
torment, "who, then, can be saved?" The single consideration 
that works and not faith are here made the test of disciple- 
ship, cuts away the foundation of the popular view of this text. 

3. The word aionlon denotes limited duration. This has 
appeared in Classic and Old Testament Usage. It is impos- 
sible that Jesus should have used the word rendered everlast- 
ing in a different sense than we have shown to have been its 
meaning in antecedent literature. 

4. God's punishments are remedial. All God's punish- 
ments are those of a Father, and must therefore be adapted 
to the improvement of his children. Heb. xii : 5, "My son, 
despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when 
thou art rebuked of him : for whom the Lord loveth he chast- 
eneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye 
endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons : for 
what son is he whom the father chasteneth not ? Furthermore, 
we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we 



108 aiOn-aionios. 

gave them, reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjec- 
tion to the Father of spirits, and live ? For they verily for a 
few days chastened us after their own pleasure ; but he for our 
profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now, no 
chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous ; 
nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of 
righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." Prov. 
iii: 11, 12, "My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; 
neither be weary of his correction : for whom the Lord loveth 
he correct eth ; even as a father the son in whom he delight- 
eth." Lam. iii : 31, 33, "For the Lord will not cast off forever : 
but though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion accord- 
ing to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict 
willingly, nor grieve the children of men.'* See also Job v; 
Lev. xxvi; Psalms cxix: 67, 71, 75; Jer. ii: 19. 

5. These events have occurred. The events here described 
took place in this world within thirty years of the time when 
Jesus spoke. They are now past. In Matt, xxiv : 4, the disci- 
ples asked our Lord when the then existing age would end. 
The word (aion) is unfortunately translated world. Had he 
meant world he would have employed kosmos, which means 
world, as aion does not. After describing the particulars, he 
announced that they would all be fulfilled, and the aion end 
in that generation, before some of his auditors should die. If 
he was correct the end came then. And this is demonstrated 
by a careful study of the entire discourse, running through 
Matt, xxiv and xxv. The disciples asked Jesus how they 
should know his coming and the end of the age. They did not 
inquire concerning the end of the actual world, as it is incor- 
rectly translated, but age. This question Jesus answered by 
describing the signs so that they, his questioners, the disciples 
themselves, might perceive the approach of the end of the Jewish 
dispensation (aion). He speaks fifteen times in the discourse 
of his speedy coming (Matt, xxiv : 3, 27, 30, 37, 39, 42, 46, 48, 
50, and xxv : 6, 10, 13, 19, 27, 31). He addresses those who 
shall be alive at his coming (Matt, xxiv : 6, 20, 33, 34), "Ye shall 
hear of wars, etc. Pray that your flight be not in the winter. 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 109 

So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it 
is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This gen- 
eration shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." Camp- 
bell, Clarke, Wakefield, and Newton 6 translate the phrase, 
"end of the world" (sunteleias tou aidnos) "conclusion of the 
age," "end of this dispensation." The question w T as, then, 
what shall indicate thy second coming and the end of the 
Mosaic economy (aiori)? "When shall all these things be 
fulfilled?" Mark xiii: 1, 34. He spoke of the temple (Luke 
xxi: 5, 7), saying one stone should not be left on another, 
and the question of his disciples was, how shall we know when 
this is to take place? The answer is (Matt, xxiv: 6, 15, 20), 
"Ye shall hear of wars. Ye shall see the abomination of desola- 
tion. Pray that your flight be not in winter." The adverbs 
"then" and "when" connect all the events related in the two 
chapters in one unbroken series. And what infallible token 
did he give that these events would occur "then?" Matt, xxiv: 
34, "Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all 
these things be fulfilled." What things? The "son of man com- 
ing in his glory in the clouds," and the end of the existing alon 
or age. Mark phrases it, "This generation shall not pass till 
all these things be done." See Luke xxi : 25, 32. This whole 
account is a parable describing the end of the Jewish aion 
age, or economy, signalized by the destruction of Jerusalem, 
and the establishment of the new aion, world, or age to come, 
that is, the Christian dispensation. Now on the authority of 
Jesus himself the aion then existing ended within a genera- 
tion, namely, about A. D. 70. Hence, those who were sent 
away into alonlon punishment, or the punishment of that 
alon, were sent into a condition corresponding in duration to 
the meaning of the word alon, i. e., age-lasting. A punish- 
ment cannot be endless, when defined by an adjective derived 
from a noun describing an event, the, end of which is distinctly 
stated to have come. 

6. The word translated punishment means improvement. 

6 Com. in Loc. 



110 AION-AIONIOS. 



The word is icolaaiv. It is thus authoritatively defined : 7 — 
"Chastisement, punishment." "The trimming of the luxuriant 
branches of a tree or vine to improve it and make it fruitful." 
"The act of clipping or pruning — restriction, restraint, reproof, 
check, chastisement." "The kind of punishment which tends 
to the improvement of the criminal, is what the Greek philos- 
ophers called Jcoldsis or chastisement." "Pruning, checking, 
punishment, chastisement, correction." "Do we want to know 
what was uppermost in the minds of those who formed the 
word for punishment? The Latin poena or punio, to punish, 
the root pu in Sanscrit, which means to cleanse, to purify, 
tells us that the Latin derivation was originally formed, not 
to express mere striking or torture, but cleansing, correcting, 
delivering from the stain of sin." That it had this meaning in 
Greek usage, we cite Plato : 8 — "For the natural or accidental 
evils of others, no one gets angry, or admonishes, or teaches, 
or punishes {kolazei) them, but we pity those afflicted with 
such misfortune. . . For if, O Socrates, you will consider 
what is the design of punishing {kolazein) the wicked, this 
of itself will show you that men think virtue something that 
may be acquired; for no one punishes {kolazei) the wicked 
looking to the j)ast only, simply for the wrong he has done, — 
that is, no one does this thing who does not act like a wild 
beast, desiring only revenge, without thought, — hence he who 
seeks to punish {kolazein) with reason, does not punish for 
the sake of the past wrong deed, . . but for the sake of the 
future, that neither the man himself who is punished may do 
wrong again, nor any other who has seen him chastised. And 
he who entertains this thought, must believe that virtue may 
be taught, and he punishes {kolazei) for the purpose of deter- 
ring from wickedness. " Like many other words this is not 
always used in its exact and full sense: the Apocrypha 
employs it as the synonym of suffering, regardless of reforma- 
tion. See Wis. iii : 11, xvi : 1 ; I. Mac. vii : 7. See also Jose- 

7 Greenfield, Hedericus, Donnegan, Grotius, Liddell, Max Muller. 

8 Protag. Sec. 38, Vol I., p. 252. 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. Ill 

phus. 9 It is found but four times in the New Testament. Acts 
iv: 21, the Jews let John and Peter go, "finding nothing fur- 
ther how they might punish them" Ckolasonta I). Did they not 
aim to reform them? Was not their punishment to cause them 
to return to the Jewish fold ? From their standpoint the word 
was certainly used to convey the idea of reformation. I. John 
iv: 18, "Fear hath torment." Here the word "torment" should 
be restraint. It is thus translated in the Emphatic Diaglot. 
The idea is, if Ave have perfect love we do not fear God, but if 
we fear we are restrained from loving him. "Fear hath 
restraint." The word is used here with but one of its mean- 
ings. In II. Peter ii : 9, the apostle uses the word as our Lord 
did : the unjust are reserved unto the day of judgment to be 
punished {kolazomenoas). This accords exactly with the 
lexicography of the word, and the general usage in the Bible and 
in Greek literature agrees with the meaning given by the lexicog- 
raphers. Now, though the word rendered punishment is some- 
times used to signify suffering alone, by Josephus and others, 
surely Divine inspiration will use it in its exact sense. We 
must therefore be certain that in the New Testament, when 
used by Jesus to designate divine punishment, it is generally 
used with its full meaning. The lexicographers and Plato, 
above, show us what that is, suffering, restraint, followed by 
correction, improvement. From this meaning of the word, 
torment is by no means excluded. God does indeed torment 
his children when they go astray. He is a "consuming fire," 
and burns with terrible severity towards us when we sin, but 
it is not because he hates, but because he loves us. He is a 
refiner's fire tormenting the immortal gold of humanity in the 
crucible of punishment, until the dross of sin is purged away. 
Mai. iii: 2, 3, "But who may abide the day of his coming? and 
who shall stand when he appeareth ? for he is like a refiner's 
fire and like fuller's soap. And he shall sit as a refiner and 
purifier of silver : and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and 
purge them as gold or silver, that they may offer unto the 

9 War. III., V., vm. ; Ant. n., IV., V. 



112 AION-AIGNIOS. 

Lord an offering in righteousness." Therefore kolasis is just 
the word to describe his punishments. They do for the soul 
what pruning does for the tree, what the crucible of the refiner 
does for the silver ore. 

This should be further evident because of the nature of 
punishment. Punishment is a means to an end. It is suffer- 
ing administered as a penalty for the purpose of accomplish- 
ing good results. The difference between revenge and pun- 
ishment is this : Revenge is suffering inflicted with no good 
end in view. Punishment is suffering inflicted for a good 
purpose. Punishment aims at three objects: 1, the prevention 
of the sin; 2, the reformation of the sinner; 3, the general 
good Endless suffering can in no just sense of the word be 
punishment, for it accomplishes no one of these results. It 
does not prevent, but perpetuates sin ; it does not reform, if 
it is endless; it does not promote the general good, 
for, if the general good is damaged by temporal sin, 
it must be infinitely more injured by endless sinfulness. 
Besides, all divine punishment must aim at the good of the 
sinner, for it proceeds from him who only smites to bless. He 
is a Father. Men are his children. Their sins exile them from 
the true object of being. His punishments must, from the 
nature of the case, and from the fact that he inflicts them, seek 
to accomplish human good, and therefore must be finite in 
duration, and end in reformation. 10 

The author of the "Emphatic Diaglot" gives this as the 
literal rendering of the Greek, 11 "And these shall go forth to 
the aionian cutting off, but the righteous to the aionian 
life." And to this verse he appends this comprehensive and 
suggestive note: — "The common version, and many mod- 
ern ones, render kolasin aidnion, everlasting punishment ; 



io "Since in all Greek literature, sacred and profane, aionios is applied to 
things that end ten times as often as it is to things immortal, no fair critic 
can assert positively that when it is connected with future punishment it 
has the stringent meaning of metaphysical endlessness." Alger. Hist. Doct. 
Fut. Life, p. 323. 

ii S. R. Wells, New York, 1873. 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 113 

conveying the idea, as generally interpreted, of basinos, tor- 
ment. Kolas in, in its various forms, occurs in three other 
places in the New Testament — Acts iv: 21; II. Peter ii: 9; I. 
Johniv: 18. It is derived from kolazoo, which signifies, 1. 
To cut off, as lopping off branches of trees, — to prune. 2. To 
restrain, to repress. The Greeks write, 'The charioteer 
(kolazoo) restrains his fiery steed.' 3. To chastise, to punish. 
To cut off an individual from life, or society, or even to 
restrain, is esteemed as punishment; hence has arisen the 
third metaphorical use of the word. The primary signification 
has been adopted, because it agrees better with the second 
member of the sentence, thus preserving the force and beauty 
of the antithesis. 'The righteous go to life, the wicked to the 
cutting off from life, or death.' " See II. Thess. i : 9. 

Even if aionion and kolasis were both of doubtful signi- 
fication, and were we only uncertain as to their meaning, we 
ought to give God the benefit of the doubt, and understand 
the word in a way to honor him, that is, in a limited sense ; but 
when all but universal usage ascribes to aionion limited dura- 
tion, and the w-ord kolas in is declared by all authorities to 
mean pruning, discipline, it is astonishing that Christian 
teachers should be found to imagine that when both words are 
together, they can mean anything else than temporary punish- 
ment ending in reformation, especially in a discourse in which 
it is expressly declared that the complete fulfillment was in 
this life, and within a generation of the time when the predic- 
tion was uttered. 

Says Canon Farrar ("Excursus" in "Eternal Hope") : — 
"That in this instance the substantive kolas is is a word which 
in its sole proper meaning 'has reference to the correction 
and bettering of him that endures' (see Philo. Leg. ad Cai. I). 
So that Clement of Alexandria defines kolaseis as merikai 
paideiai. Archbishop Trench does indeed remark (New Tes- 
tament Synonyms, p. 30) that 'It would be a very serious 
error to transfer this distinction of kolasis and timoria to 
the words as employed in the New Testament.' Why should 
it be a serious error to refrain from reading into a word a 
8 



114 AION-AIONIOS. 

sense which it does not possess ? According to Aristotle kolasis 
is corrective, timoria alone is vindictive; kolasis has in view 
the improvement of the offender, timoria the satisfaction of 
the inflictor (?) piev ko/mc/c rov ttclcxovtoq hem eorcv ?'/ (k rtjuupla rov 
■KOLovv-os'Lva a-orrTirjpodf]. — Bhet. 1:10,17). It is Josephus, not 
our Lord and his apostles, who uses such phrases as athan- 
atos timoria and eirgmos a'iclios ', and though 'everlasting 
death' occurs in our liturgy, it nowhere occurs in Scripture, 
frequently as we read of seonian life." 

Says Rev. Prof. Plumtre, in a letter concerning Canon 
Farrar's sermons: — "There were two words which the Evan- 
gelist might have used, — kolasis, timoria. Of these the, first 
carries with it, by the definition of the greatest of Greek eth- 
ical writers, the idea of a reformatory process. It is inflicted 
'for the sake of him who suffers it.' 12 The second, on the other 
hand, describes a penalty purely vindictive or retributive. St, 
Matthew chose— if we believe that our Lord spoke Greek, he 
himself chose — the former word and not the latter." 

Dean Trench says: 13 — "Kolasin — timoria. Timoria 
once (Heb. x: 29), kolasin, (Matt, xxv: 46; I. John iv: 18). 
Timoria is vindictive punishment, Latin, ultio, to satisfy the 
punished, from timee and ouros, protecting honor. Kolasis, 
to correct and better the punished, castigatio, Plato (Protag, 
323 e). See also Clemens of Alexandria, Strom, iv : 24, Aristotle, 
Khet. i: 10." Trench assumes that kolasin in Matt, xxv: 46, 
is not the same as usual, giving no reason but his own opinion 
that kolasin aionion in Matthew is exactly the same as atlian- 
atos timoria in Josephus, (B. J. ii: 8-11) and a'iclios tim- 
oria of Plato (Ax. 372, a), which Jesus threatens (Mark ix : 43- 
48). See also the same idea in Josephus (Ant. xv : 22), Philo. 
(De Agricul. 9, Mart. Pol. 2), II. Mace, iv: 38; Wisd. Sol. xix: 
4." This gratuitous opinion shows how easily the critic may 
be swamped in the theologian. 

Eev. Samuel Cox, author of "Salvator Mundi," says in his 
"Doctrine of the yEons :" — "When our Lord speaks of the worm 
and the fire, we must take him to mean either the actual worm 

12 Aristotle, Rhet. I., 10; * 3 Greek Synonyms. 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 115 

and the actual fire of the Gehenna valley, or some spiritual 
analogue of these, some discipline, some torment, which effects 
in the spiritual world, what the real worm and the real fire 
do in the natural world. The fanction of worms in the 
natural world is to prevent, though they seem to promote, 
putrefaction. They feed on the noxious matter which would 
else breed infection ; they transmute the refuse of decay into 
their own living and healthy organisms. Fire, again, consumes 
dead and noxious matter, leaving only the ash, which is the 
best manure of a new crop, transmuting all else into higher 
and invisible forms. To rid the earth of that which is nox- 
ious and infectious, to transmute it into vital and wholesome 
forms — this is the proper function of both worm and fire in 
the natural world. What, then, can the moral analogue of 
them be, but a discipline so searching, so severe, as that it 
shall destroy that which is corrupt and corrupting, render innox- 
ious that which is noxious, and evolve life itself from the very 
jaws of death? Here, then, our Lord explains his own 
thought to us, and shows us that the fire of Gehenna, the 
eeonial fire, which he had in "view, was the symbol, not of a 
vindictive and degrading punishment, but of a purifying and 
vivifying correction. 'Our God is a consuming fire,' and a 
fire that will burn until all that is evil is burned up." 

It ought not to be forgotten that the oriental shepherd 
regards his goats as nearly as valuable as his sheep, and our 
Lord intimates this when he gives them the next best place to 
his right hand, namely, his left hand. And he speaks of 
them tenderly, for the word (eplduv) is not "goats," but" kids," 
in verse 32, and in verse 33 even "kidlings" (epi<pta). The lan- 
guage is not that of anger, hatred, but of sympathy and 
kindness, as though Jesus had said the unfortunate goats shall 
be consigned to a severe but disciplinary punishment that shall 
purify and perfect them. 

The stereotyped objection to these views originated with 
St. Augustine, 14 who said, "If we do not understand aionios 

i* A. D. 414.— De Civ. Dei XXI., 23. "Dicere autem in hoc uno eodemque 
sensu, vita externa sine fine erit, supplicium ceternumftnem habebit, multum absur- 



116 AION-AIONIOS. 

kolasis to mean endless punishment, we ought not to under- 
stand aionios zoe to mean everlasting life." This does not 
follow, for the word is used in Greek in different senses in the 
same sentence ; as Hab. iii: 6, "And the everlasting moun- 
tains were scattered — his ways are everlasting." Suppose we 
apply the popular argument here. The mountains and God 
must be of equal duration, for the same word is applied to 
both. Both are temporal or both are endless. But the moun- 
tains are expressly stated to be temporal — they "were scat- 
tered," — therefore God is not eternal. Or God is eternal and 
therefore the mountains must be. But they cannot be, for 
they were scattered. The argument does not hold water. The 
aionion mountains were destroyed. Hence the word may 
denote both limited and unlimited duration in the same pas- 
sage, the different meanings to be determined by the subject 
treated. Canon Farrar observes: 15 — "The word 'seonian,' 
though sanctioned by Mr. Tennyson in the lines — 

'Draw down aeonian hills, and sow 
The dust of continents to be,' 

and though rendered very desirable by the sad confusion of 
eternity with the mere negative conception of endlessness, can 
perhaps hardly be naturalized. It is not worth while once 
more to discuss its meaning when it has been so ably proved 
by so many writers that there is no authority whatever for ren- 
dering it 'everlasting,' and when even those who, like Dr« 
Pusey, are such earnest defenders of the doctrine of an end- 
less hell, yet admit that the word only means 'endless within 
the sphere of its own existence,' so that on their own showing 
the word does not prove their point, and is, for instance, pow- 
erless against those who hold the doctrine of conditional 
immortality. It may be worth while, however, to point out once 
more to less educated readers that alow alavtog and their Hebrew 
equivalents, in all combinations, are repeatedly used of things 

dum est. 1 ' Augustine also says that the whole human race is "one damned 
batch and mass of perdition !" (conspersio damnaia, massaperditionis.) 
is Excursus on Aionios. 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 117 

which have come and shall coine to an end. Even Augustine 
admits (what, indeed, no one can deny) that in Scripture 
alow a'uwtog must in many instances mean 'having an end' ; and 
St. Gregory of Nyssa, who at least knew Greek, uses aluviog as 
the epithet of ' an interval.' In answer to the old argument 
invented by St. Augustine (see note 14), and since his 
day so incessantly repeated, — the argument, namely, 
that if we do not make aluvcog Kokaaiq mean endless 
punishment we have no security that aluviog C,utj means endless 
life, and that we thus lose our promise of everlasting 
happiness, I reply — 1. This is absolutely no argumenf 
whatever, and ought never to be heard again, because the 
very men who most insist upon it, contemptuously set it 
aside, if we ask them to apply identically the same argument, 
analogously, to such texts as 'As in Adam all die, even so in 
Christ shall all be made alive.' 2. That our sure and certain 
hope of everlasting happiness rests on no such miserable foun- 
dation as the disputed meaning of a Greek adjective which is 
used over and over again of things transitory. If we need texts 
on which to rest it, we may find plenty, such as Luke xx : 36 ; 
Hos. xiii: 14; Eev. xxi: 4; Is. xxv: 6; I. Cor. xv, passim, etc. 
3. That although we take the word alonios in both clauses to 
mean 'eternal' — by which (in this connection) we mean some- 
thing above and beyond time, time being simply a mode of 
thought necessary only to our finite condition — (See John v: 
39, xvii : 3) — yet it is by no means necessarily the case that 
the word should have identically the same meaning in both 
clauses, since the meaning of the same adjective might quite 
conceivably be modified, and even altered, by that of the sub- 
stantive to which it is attached. Nothing could be more in 
accordance with the ordinary genius of human speech than 
that the same adjective might have its fullest meaning in one 
clause, in which that meaning is entirely consonant with rea- 
son and conscience, yet not have it in the other, where it would 
be shocking and terrible. What makes the argument as abso- 
lutely inexcusable on philological as it is on all other grounds, 
is, that in Kom. xvi : 25, 26, this very word occurs twice, and 



118 AION-AIONIOS. 

in one of the two clauses cannot mean 'everlasting,' since it 
is speaking of time which has come to an end ; and it is yet 
translated 'everlasting' by our translators in the very next 
clause ! — 'According to the revelation of a mystery hidden in 
silence in the eternal times' (E. V., 'before the world began,' 
where the reader will see that 'endless' would be a fla- 
grant absurdity), 'but now made manifest according to the 
command of the Eternal God.' But surely there are other 
grounds on which we ought to have heard the last of this 
dreary argument, to which it is hardly possible to listen with- 
out indignation. Good men, from St. Augustine to St. Thomas 
Aquinas (Summ. part iii., Suppl., Quaest. 99, iii), and from 
St. Thomas to Dr. Pusey, have gone on reioeating it ad nau- 
seam, and even the gentle Iveble wrote— 

'And if the treasures of thy wrath could waste, 
Thy lovers inust their promised heaven forego.' 

We hear the questions asked triumphantly in sermons, 'If the 
punishment of the wicked is not to last forever, what guaran- 
tee have we that the f elicity of the blessed will last forever ?' 
I reply, Is there not in the question — when not traditionally 
repeated, but plainly considered — an intense selfishness and a 
most ignoble thought of God?" 

JEonian punishment and life are coupled in the same pas- 
sage only twice in the entire Bible, Dan. xii : 2, and Matt, 
xxv : 46, and in Daniel the everlasting life and the everlasting 
shame and contempt are expressly applied to temporal affairs, 
namely, the destruction of Jerusalem. 

The word may mean endless when applied to life, and not 
when applied to punishment, even in the same sentence, 
though we think duration is not considered so much as the 
intensity of the joy or the sorrow, in either case. The epithet 
in such instances is qualitative rather than quantitative. 

Therefore, 1, the fulfillment of the language in this life; 
2, the. meaning of aionion; and, 3, the meaning of kolasis, 
demonstrate that the penalty threatened in Matt, xxv : 46 is 
a limited one. It is a threefold cord that human skill cannot 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 119 

break. Prof. Tayler Lewis thus translates Matt. xxv:46, 
"These shall go away into the punishment (the restraint, impris- 
onment) of the world to come, and those into the life of the 
■world to come." And he says "that is all that ice can etymolo- 
gically or exegetically make of the word in this passage" 
Hence, also, the zoen aionion (life eternal) is not endless, 
but is a condition resulting from a good character. The intent 
of the phrase is not to teach immortal happiness, nor does 
kolasin aion ion indicate endless punishment. Both phrases, 
regardless of duration, refer to the limited results of wrong- 
ing or blessing others, extending possibly through Messiah's 
reign until "the end" (I. Cor. xv.). Both describe consequen- 
ces of conduct to befall those referred to at his "coming," 
then "at hand," and all those consequences antedate the 
immortal state. 

Canon Kingsley, author of "Hypatia,"etc, observes ("Mem- 
oirs"), "The word (aion, ceori) is never used in Scripture or any- 
where else in the sense of endlessness (vulgarly called eter- 
nity). It always meant, both in Scripture and out, a period 
of time. Else, how could it have a plural — how could you talk 
of the ceons, and ceons of ceons, as the Scripture does ? 
Aionios therefore means, and must mean, belonging to an 
epoch, or the epoch ; and aionios kolasis is the punishment 
allotted to that epoch." 

But the blessed life has not been left dependent on so 
equivocal a word. The soul's immortal and happy existence 
is taught in the New Testament by words that in the Bible 
are never attached to anything that is of limited duration. 
They are applied to God and the soul's happy existence only. 
These words are akataluion, imperishable; amarantos and 
amarantinos, unfading; aphtharto, immortal, incorruptible; 
and athanasian, immortality. Let us quote some of the pas- 
sages in which these words occur. — Heb. vii : 16, "And it is yet 
far more evident : for that after the similitude of Melchizedec 
there ariseth another iDriest, who is made, not after the law of 
a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless 
(akatalutos, imperishable) life." I. Pet. i: 3, 4, "Blessed be 



120 AION-AIONIOS. 

the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which accord- 
ing to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a 
lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 
to an inheritance incorruptible (aphtharton) and undenled, 
and that fadeth not (amaranton) away." I. Pet. v: 4, "And 
when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown 
of glory that fadeth not (amarantinos) away." I. Tim. i: 17, 
"Now unto the King eternal, immortal (aphtharto), invisi- 
ble, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever, 
Amen. " Rom. i : 23, "And changed the glory of the incorrupt- 
ible God into an image made like to corruptible man." 
I. Cor. ix: 25, "Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; 
but we an incorruptible" I. Cor. xv: 51, 54, "Behold, I shew 
you a mystery ; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump : for 
the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incor- 
ruptible (aphthartoi), and we shall be changed. For this cor- 
ruptible must put on incorruption (aphtharsian), and this 
mortal must put on immortality (athanasian). So when 
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption (athanasian), 
and this mortal shall have put on immortality (aphtharsian), 
then shall be brought to pass the saying that is writt en, Death 
is swallowed up in victory." Rom. ii: 7, "To them who by 
patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor 
and immortality (aphtharsia), eternal life." I. Cor. xv: 42, 
"So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in cor- 
ruption, it is raised in incorruption (aphtharsia)." See 
also verse 50. II. Tim. i : 10, "Who brought life and immor- 
tality (aphtharsian) to light, through the gospel." I. Tim. 
vi : 16, "Who only hath immortality (athanasian)" 

The terms athanatos, adialeiptos and a'ldios definitely 
and unequivocally denote endlessness. These words were in 
common use by the contemporaries of Jesus. These ivords 
Jesus never used. That is to say, he avoided the only phra- 
seology that unequivocally teaches endlessness, when applied 
to punishment, and the very terms then in common use. 

A very much stronger word is aperantos, endless, inter- 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 121 

minable, found in I. Tim. i : 4, "endless genealogies," 
though it is sometimes used hyperbolically, as here. 
Another stronger word is akatalutos, 15 indissoluble, as in 
Heb. vii:16, "endless life." Had it been intended to 
express the interminable duration of punishment, "would 
not these strong words have been employed, instead of 
so equivocal a one as the subject of this biography? And 
does not the fact that the New Testament authors absolutely 
refused to employ those stronger words when describing the 
duration of punishment, demonstrate that they did not intend 
to teach its eternity ? 

Now, these words the Greeks rarely used, except to denote 
endlessness. Perhaps the strongest of Greek words is ate- 
leutetos.^ 7 It is never found in the New Testament, though 
it was used by the Emperor Justinian, in his letter to the 
patriarch Mennas, when he desired to declare the endless- 
ness of punishment by a word entirely unambiguous. He 
says, 13 "The holy church of Christ teaches an endless a3onian 
lif e for the righteous, and an endless punishment for the wicked." 
He does not rest the eternity of life on the word aionios, but 
adds ateleutetos to it, and when announcing the eternity of 
future punishment, he does not depend on the word 
aionios at all, but considers ateleutetos sufficient of 
itself. Can any one doubt that this strongest of all words 
would have been used, had eternal punishment been in our 
Lord's mind? And how can any advocate of endless punish- 
ment account for the feebler word used, and the neglect of 
the stronger, except that he intended to teach no such doc- 
trine ? 

The Greek language possesses, and the New Testa- 
ment uses, words of vastly stronger import than the reonian 
phraseology, that are applied to what has no end, and these 
words might have been, shall we not say would have been, 



17 aTF.?,Evrrj-or. 

is E. Beecher, D. D., Christian Union, Sept. 17, 1873. 



122 AION-AIONIOS. 

connected with punishment had it been intended to teach its 
interminable duration? Apeiros signifies endless, unlimited, 
infinite. Aristotle employs it in the sense of endless. 
Aperantos is endless, infinite. A'lclios, eternal, perpetual? 
continual, everlasting. Paul thus employs it, God's "eternal 
power and Godhead." Jude speaks of a'lclios chains, for 
exposition of which see Appendix B, of this volume. 

Let us consider somewhat more minutely the several 
Greek words that are far stronger in their meaning than are 
the reonian terms, and that are rarely, and some of them never, 
in the Bible, applied to anything of temporary duration, and 
never to the punishment of human sinners. 

1. "Aidiog (a'idios) (eternal, perpetual, everlasting)} 9 
Paul applies it to God (Bom. i : 20), "his eternal power and 
Godhead" (i'/rs aidtog avrov dbvafxig ml -&tLorrjg). Jude (6) speaks 
of certain chains as eternal (Seofioig aidwig). [See Appendix B.] 
Aristotle observes, 20 "There are certain difficult questions 
which we cannot certainly determine, as whether or not the 
world is eternal (olov Tzorepov 'o nocuog aid tog fj oh). Here the word 
denotes absolute eternity. 

2. ' A/LiapdvTog and ' A/napdvrtvog (amarantos, amarantinos) 
(unfading, fadeless, eternal)} 9 I. Pet. i : 4, "An inheritance 
incorruptible and undefined, and that fadeth not away" (elg 
K?,7]povofj.lav d(p-&apTov nai d/ulavrov nal aiidpavrov). 

3. 'AMvarog (atlianaios) (immortal, deathless, never- 
dying)} 9 The noun of this adjective, athanasia, occurs in 
I. Cor. xv : 54, "This mortal must put on immortality." Pyth- 
agoras applies it to the gods in his "Golden Sayings." 21 

4. 'AnardhvTog (akatalutos) (indissoluble, incapable of 
being destroyed)} 9 Heb. vii : 16,"an endless life" (C^c daaraTiv- 
ruv). 

5. y A(j)ddpTog (aphthartos) (incorruptible, immortal, 
eternal)} 9 In I. Tim. i : 17, God is aphtliarto. In I. Pet. i : 4, 



isEwing, Grove. 

soTrop. i: 11. 

2i Greeca Majora, pp. 241, 312-314. 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 123 

the soul's life is aphtharton. In Rom. i : 23, God is incor- 
ruptible, aphthartou. In I. Cor. ix : 25, the reward of Chris- 
tian effort is imperishable, aphtharton. In I. Cor. xv: 52, 
the dead are to experience an incorruptible life, aphthartoi. 
In I. Pet. i : 23, the happy life hereafter is aphthartou. 

6. 'Arep/icjv (atermon) (infinite, interminable). Aris- 
totle employs it to strengthen aion, 22 "From an interminable 
age to another age" (f£ aiowog drepuovog elg irepov alcjua). This 
word is not in the Bible. 

7. 'A-epavrog (aperantos) (endless, boundless). 23 I. Tim. 
i : 4, "endless genealogies " (-/-evea/.oyiaig d-epdvroig). Justin Mar- 
tyr defines the punishment of the wicked by the word, 24 rbv 
drripdvrov aluva. 

Let us quote the passages in which some of these words 
occur : — Heb. vii : 15, 16, "And it is yet far more evident : 
for that after the similitude of Melchizedec there ariseth 
another priest, who is made, not after the law of a carnal com- 
mandment, but after the power of an endless (akatalutou), 
(imperishable) life." I. Pet. i: 3, 4, "Blessed be the God and 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his 
abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by 
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inherit- 
ance incorruptible (aphtharton), and undefiled, and that 
fadethnot (amaranton) away." I. Pet. v: 4, "And when the 
chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory 
that fadeth not (amarantlnon) away." I. Tim. i: 17, "Xow 
uuto the King eternal, immortal (aphtharto), invisible, the 
only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever, Amen." 
Bom. i: 23, "And changed the glory of the incorruptible 
(aphthartou) God into an image made like to corruptible 
man." I. Cor. ix : 25, "Xow they do it to obtain a corrupt- 
ible crown; but we an incorruptible''' (aphtharton). I. Cor. 
xv:51, 54, "Behold, I shew you a mystery ; we shall not all 
sleep, but we shall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling 

22 De Miindo. 23 Ewing and Grove. 21 Apol. I., C, 27. 



124 AION-AIONIOS. 

of an eye, at the last trump : for the trumpet shall sound, and 
the dead shall be raised incorruptible {aphthartoi), and we 
shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on wcor 
ruption {aphtharsian), and this mortal must put on immor- 
tality {athanasian). So, when this corruptible shall have put 
on incorruption {aphtharsian), and this mortal shall have 
put on immortality {athanasian), then shall be brought to 
pass the saying that is written, death is swallowedivp in victory." 
Bom. ii : 7, "To them who by patient continuance in well doing 
seek for glory and honor and immortality {athanasian), 
eternal life." I. Cor. xv: 42, "So also is the resurrection of 
the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption 
{aphtharsia). ,, See also verse 50. II. Tim. i : 10, "Who brought 
life and immortality {aphtharsian) to light, through the 
gospel." I. Tim. vi: 16, "Who only hath immortality 
{athanasian)." 

The way in which men may honestly and unconsciously 
carry an error, even when they really know better, is happily 
illustrated in the following anecdote, which our friend, Eev. 
G. L. Demarest, has communicated : — "Many years ago, being 
clerk in a New York publishing house, I called to collect a 
note or a check for a running account, upon a bookseller who 
was a member of a Congregational church. I had hardly 
entered the store, before he asked me, 'Mr. D., how do you 
Universalists get over Matt. xxv:46?' 'We don't "get over" 
it ; we don't want to get over it ; it suits us just as it is.' 'Why, 
doesn't that teach endless punishment?' 'Not at all: I sup- 
pose you depend on the word "everlasting," do you not ?' 'Of 
course.' ' Well, the word there translated "everlasting" does 
not necessarily mean endless.' Just at the moment Professor 
Bush came in — Bev. George Bush, then in good standing in 
the Presbyterian church, author of notes on Genesis and other 
Old Testament books, Professor of Hebrew and Oriental 
Literature in the University of the State of New York, whom 
I knew personally as a most amiable Christian man, and honest 
and true. At once said my friend, 'Professor, Mr. D. says 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 125 

that the word translated "everlasting" in Matt, xxv : 46, does 
not necessarily mean "endless"; is that so?' 'Yes,' said Prof. 
B., 'that is so ; but if the Savior intended to express the idea 
of endlessness, he could not have found a stronger word in 
Greek.' 'Professor,' said I, 'you surprise me; I thought 
athanatos stronger.' 'So it is.' 'I thought akatalutos 
stronger.' 'So it is.' 'I thought aphthartos stronger.' 'So 
it is.' I attended to the business upon which I called, and 
left." Here was a ripe scholar honestly insisting on what he 
knew to be false. Such is the power of habit, and the force 
of a false theological bias. 

Now, these words are applied to God and the soul's hap- 
piness. They are never in the Bible applied to punishment, 
or to anything perishable. They would have been affixed to 
punishment had the Bible intended to teach endless punish- 
ment. And certainly they show the error of those who declare 
that the equivocal word aionion is all the word, or the strong- 
est word in the Bible, declarative of endless duration, or of 
the endlessness of the life beyond the grave. A little more 
study of the subject would prevent such reckless statements as 
are frequently made by men professing scholarship, and would 
show that the happy, endless life does not depend at all on the 
pet word of partialist critics. 

Canon Farrar observes : 25 — "Thank God, my own hopes of 
seeing God's face for ever hereafter do not rest on ten times 
refuted attempts to read false meanings into the Greek lexicon in 
order to support a system far darker than St. Augustine's, from 
whose mistaken literalism it took its disastrous origin. But here 
I declare, and call God to witness, that if the popular doctrine of 
hell were true, I should be ready to resign all hope, not only of a 
shortened, but of any immortality, if thereby I could save, not 
millions, but one single human soul from what fear, and super- 
stition, and ignorance, and inveterate hate, and slavish letter- 
worship, have dreamed and thought of hell. I call God to 
witness that so far from regretting the possible loss of some 

25 Eternal Hope. 



126 AION-AIONIOS. 

billions of ceons of bliss by attaching to the word aidnios a 
sense in which scores of times it is undeniably found, I would 
here, and now, and kneeling on my knees, ask him that I 
might die as the beasts that perish, and for ever cease to be, 
rather than that my worst enemy should endure the hell 
described by Tertullian, or Minucius Felix, or Jonathan 
Edwards, or Dr. Pusey, or Mr. Eurniss, or Mr. Moody, or Mr. 
Spurgeon, for one single year. Unless my whole nature were 
utterly changed, I can imagine no immortality which would 
not be abhorrent to me if it was accompanied with the knowl- 
edge that the millions and millions and millions of poor suf- 
fering wretches — some of whom on earth I had known and 
loved — were writhing in an agony without end or hope." 

The origin of the argument that endless punishment is 
taught in Matt, xxv : 46, because the same word describing the 
duration of life is used to describe the duration of punishment, is 
interesting. 23 Orosius, a Spanish Presbyter, visited Augustine, 
A. D. 413, and informed him that the Origenists affirmed that 
aionios denoted an indefinitely long, and not an endless, dura- 
tion. Augustine replied in a letter that though aion could 
signify limited, aionios could not, as the Greeks only applied 
it to things without end. And referring to the aBonian things 
in the Mosaic dispensation, he declared that they were eternal 
because the things they typify are eternal, and that in Matt. 
xxv : 46, endless duration is taught, both of life and punish- 
ment. 27 And yet he confesses, "I am not so accustomed to 
the Greek language that I am at all competent to read and 
understand books on such subjects." 28 "I have learned very 
little of the Greek language, and almost nothing." 29 And 
yet orthodox theologians for fourteen hundred years have 
bowed to the dictum of Augustine, though he confesses he was 
wholly incompetent to pronounce on the subject, and whose 
statement is contradicted by uniform Greek usage ! 



26 Beecher, Hist. Fut. Ret., pp. 249-50. 

27 See also bis "City of God," B. xsi. 23, and Manual of Theology, C. 112. 

28 De Trinitate iii, Proem. 

29 Contra literos Petiliani I., ii. C. 38. 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 127 

If endless happiness were promised in the second member 
of this sentence, it would not follow that endless punishment is 
threatened in the first, for, as Dr. J. M. Whiton correctly 
observes, 30 "If it be antecedently as probable that God will 
evermore uphold in being a soul irrecoverably involved in the 
processess of 'aaonian destruction' (II. Thess. i : 9), as it is that 
he will perpetuate, according to a siDecific promise (John xiv : 
19), the immortality of a soul healthfully developing the 
'seonian life' received through Christ; then, and not other- 
wise, the inference of an endless misery from an endless 
happiness, may have some rational foundation. " 

Clemance, an English writer, 31 declares that these Greek 
terms are "words which shine only by a reflected light. If 
good ever should come to an end, that would come to an end 
which Christ died to bring in, but if evil comes to an end, 
that comes to an end which he died to destroy. So that the 
two stand by no means on the same footing. An seon may 
have an end. iEons of aeons may have an end. Only that 
which lasts through all the seons is without an end; and 
Scripture affirms this only of the Kingdom of God, and of 
the glory of God in the church. The absolute eternity of 
evil is nowhere affirmed. " 

The meaning of the terms "life eternal" and "life ever- 
lasting" {zoen aidnion), can be ascertained by a little investiga- 
tion. 

1 . Zoen aidnion in the New Testament, is the lif e resulting 
from Christian faith. John iii : 36, ' 'He that believeth on the 
son hath everlasting life;" 16, "Whosoever believeth in 
him should have everlasting life ;" vi : 47, 54, "Verily, verily, 
I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. 
Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal 
life;" John xvii: 3, "This is life eternal, to know thee, the 
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." See 
also, John x : 28, xiv : 50. This life may be, and often is, only 



so Preface to Is Eternal Punishment Endless ? 

31 Future Punishment, pp. 65-6, quoted by Canon Farrar 



128 AION-AIONIOS. 

a temporary possession; men have it, and fall from grace 
and lose it. It denotes, therefore, the present enjoyment, or 
blessedness, of following Christ. John vi : 33, 53, "For the 
bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and 
giveth life unto the world. Then Jesus said unto them, verily, 
verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the son of 
man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." See also 
I. John iii : 15, v : 12 ; John iii : 15, etc. The blessed life of 
the soul in the immortal world does not depend on faith 
here. 

2. Zoen aionion especially denotes the reward that was 
received by those who were faithful at the time of Christ. 
Matt, xix : 29, "And every one that hath forsaken houses, or 
brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or 
lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and 
shall inherit everlasting life." Mark x : 30,"But he shall receive 
a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and 
sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecu- 
tions ; and in the world to come, eternal life. " Consult, also, 
Luke xviii : 30 ; John xii : 25 ; Matt, xxv : 46. As this eternal 
life was to be given as a reward, it cannot mean the immortal 
life, for that life is a "free gift." 

3. Zoen aionion sometimes denotes the immortal life of 
the soul hereafter. John xvii : 1, 2, "Father, the hour is come, 
glorify thy son, that thy son may also glorify thee, as thou 
hast given him power over all flesh that he might give eternal 
life to as many as thou hast given him." Rom. v : 21, "As sin 
hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through 
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." 
I. John v: 11, "This is the record that God hath given us 
eternal life, and this life is in his son." 

The life eternal, or everlasting, that is bestowed for faith, 
or obedience, is a present blessing. The future life is the "gift 
of God." But though sometimes used thus, it should always 
be borne in mind that this phrase "everlasting life" or 
"eternal life" does not usually denote endless existence, but 
the life of the gospel, spiritual life, the Christian life, regard- 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 129 

less of its duration. In more than fifty of the seventy-two 
times that the adjective occurs in the New Testament, it 
describes life. John v : 21, "Ha that believeth on him that sent 
me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemna- 
tion, but is passed from death unto life." Eternal life is the 
life of the gospel. Its duration depends on the posses- 
sor's fidelity. It is no less the aionion life, if one abandon it 
in a month after acquiring it. It consists in knowing, loving 
and serving God. It is the Christian life, regardless of its 
duration. How often the good fall from grace. Believing, 
they have the aionion life, but they lose it by apostasy. 
Notoriously it is not, in thousands of cases, endless. The life 
is of an indefinite length, so that the usage of the phrase in 
the New Testament is altogether in favor of giving the word 
the sense of limited duration. Hence Jesus does not say, "he 
that believeth shall enjoy endless harjpiness," but "he hath 
everlasting life," and "is passed from death unto life." 

It scarcely need here be proved that the a Ionian life can 
be acquired and lost. Heb. vi : 4, "For it is impossible for 
those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the 
heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the holy ghost, and 
have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the 
world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again 
unto repentance : seeing they crucify to themselves the son of 
God afresh, and put him to an open shame." A life that can 
thus be lost is not intrinsically endless. "Eternal life" with 
the sacred writers has less the sense of perpetuity, than of 
moral quality. It denotes spiritual regeneration. It is some- 
times called "life" merely. Thus, "I come that ye raay have 
life," "bread of life," "enter into life," "God hath given us eter- 
nal life and this life is in his son ;" "He that hath the son, hath 
life." In all these the meaning indicates a life from moral 
death, a regeneration, having no reference to its duration. 

It is often remarked that as, according to Josephus, the 

Jews in our Savior's time believed in endless punishment, 

Jesus must have taught the same doctrine, as "he employed 

the terms the Jews used." But this is not true, as we have 

9 



130 AION-AIONIOS. 

shown. Christ and his apostles did not employ the phraseol- 
ogy that the Jews used to describe this doctrine. As we have 
shown, Philo used athanaton and ateleuteton, meaning immor- 
tal, and interminable. He says, 32 "to live always dying, and 
to undergo an immortal and interminable death." He also 
employs a'ldion, but not amnion. 33 Josephus says, "They, 
the Pharisees, believe 'the souls of the bad are allotted to an 
eternal prison, and punished with eternal retribution." In 
describing the doctrine of the Essenes, Josephus says they 
believe "the souls of the bad are sent to a dark and tempestu- 
ous cavern, full of incessant punishment." But the phrase- 
ology of Jesus and the apostles is kolasin aionion, or aionion 
kriseon, "aeonian chastisement," or "asonian condemnation." 
The Jews contemporary with Jesus call retribution aidios, 
or adialelptos timoria, while the Savior calls it aionios krisis 
or kolasis aionios, and the apostles, olethros aionios, 
ceonian destruction ; and puros aionios, ceonian fire. Had 
Jesus and his apostles used the terms employed by the Jews 
to whom they spoke, we should be compelled to admit that 
they taught the popular doctrine. See this point further 
elucidated, at the end of this volume, in apj)endix B., on the 
word aidios. 

"To live always dying and undergo an endless death," 
is the language of "orthodox" pulpits, and of the Greek Jews, 
but our Savior and his apostles carefully avoided charging 
God with being the author of so cruel a calamity. 

Says a learned scholar : 34 — "Aionios is a word of sparing 
occurrence among ancient classical Greek writers ; nor is it by 
any means the common term employed by them to signify 
eternal. On the contrary, they much more frequently make 
use of aidios, aei on, or some similar mode of speech, for this 
purpose. . . . Tome it appears that the Seventy, 
by choosing aionios to represent 61am, testify that they did 
not understand the Hebrew word to signify eternal. Had 

32 Universalist Expositor, Vol. III., p. 446. 

33 Universalist Expositor, Vol. III., p. 437. 

34 Christian Examiner, Sept., 1830. 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 131 

they so understood it, they would certainly have translated it 
by some more decisive word ; some term, which, like a'idios, is 
more commonly employed in Greek, to signify that which has 
neither beginning nor end." 

Moreover, the evidence is overwhelming that the auditors 
of Jesus, besides the Pharisees and Essenes, did not believe in 
endless punishment. Philipson declares, 35 "The Rabbins do not 
accept the eternity of hell torments." 36 The ancient Jewish 
authorities agree that endless punishment was not a doctrine 
of the Jews at the time of Christ, except as it was in some cases 
held by those who had obtained it of the heathen. To such 
Jesus referred when he denounced the "traditions" of the 
Pharisees. "There is a space of only two fingers' breadth 
between hell and heaven; the sinner has but to repent sin- 
cerely, and the gates to everlasting bliss will spring open." 37 
"Gehenna is nothing but a day in which the impious shall be 
burned." 38 "The judgment of the ungodly is for twelve 
months." 39 

35 Israelitische Religionslehre, ii: 235. 

36 "Die Rabbiner nehmen keine Ewigkeit der Hollenstrafen an, au.cn 
die grossten Sunder werden nur 'Generationen hindurch' gestraft." Quoted 
by Canon Farrar, who gives this valuable note froni Stepbelin's Rabbinical 
Literature (1748), II, 31, 71 :— Zijoni, f. 69, 3, "only a thread's thickness 
between Paradise and Gehenna ;" Asarath Maarnaroth, f. 85, 1, "there will 
be no more Gehenna ;" Jalkuth Shhnoni, f. 46, 1, "Gabriel and Michael will 
open the 8,000 gates of Gehenna, and let out Israelites and righteous Gen- 
tiles ;" Jalkuth Chadash, f. 57, 1, "The righteous bring out of heaven 
imperfect souls ;" Jalkuth Rubeni, f. 167, 4, "Sabbaths and refrigeria of the 
doomed ;" Zohar, in Exod. Tr. Gibborim, f. 70, 1 ; Nishmath Chajim, f. 83, 1 ; 
Jalkuth Shhnoni, f. 88, 3, and many other passages speak of 12 months as 
the period of punishment in Gehenna. In a magnificent passage of Othoth 
(attributed to Akiba) it is said that God has a key of Gehenna, and that he 
will preach to all the righteous, that Zerubbabel will say the Xaddish and 
an Amen I snail sound forth from Gehenna, and that Gabriel and Michael 
will open the 40,000 gates of Gehenna, and set free the damned. Akiba 
founds this on lsa. xxvi : 2, reading Shomer Amenim "observing the Amen," 
for Shomer Emunim, "keeping the truth." Lastly, in Emelc Hammelech, f . 138, 
4, "the wicked stay in Gehenna till the resurrection, and then the Messiah, 
passing through it, redeems them." (.See Appendix C] 

3 ? Deutsch, Remains, p. 33. 38 Abhoda, Zara. Rabbi Akiba. 

39 Adyoth, ii : 10, "Die Strafen in Gehenna. In diesem Punkt erklaren 



132 AION-AIONIOS. 

All these facts demonstrate that the Jews did not regard 
the word aionios in the Scriptures as denoting endless dura- 
tion, for they applied it to punishment, and yet they regarded 
Gehenna, the place of future punishment, as of limited dura- 
tion. 

We will now consider the other passages in the New Tes- 
tament, in winch punishment, or the consequences of sin, are 
declared to be seonian. 

Matt, xii : 32, "Whosoever speaketh against the holy ghost, 
it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world (tovto to al&vt, 
this the age), neither in the world to come." Parallel passages : 
Mark iii : 29, "But he that shall blaspheme against the holy 
ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal dam- 
nation." Luke xii: 10, "And whosoever shall speak a word 
against the son of man, it shall be forgiven him ; but unto him 
that blasphemeth against the holy ghost it shall not be for- 
given." Literally, "neither in this age nor the coming," that 
is, neither in the Mosaic, nor the Christian age or dispensa- 
tion. But, then, these ages will both end, and in the dispen- 
sation of the fullness of times, or ages, all are to be redeemed. 
(Eph. i : 10.) The exact rendering of Mark iii : 29 is not, 
"hath never forgiveness," but "hath not forgiveness for the 
ceon, but is involved in seonian sin." 40 The parallel passage, 
Matt, xii : 32, reads, "It shall not be forgiven him, neither in 
this nor in the coming ceon." Luke xii : 10, "Shall not be for- 
given." The original of Mark iii : 29 so plainly teaches that 
the penalty here threatened is of limited duration, that Augus- 
tine taught that those unforgiven in the present, would obtain 
forgiveness in some future aeon. He says (See Lange, Com. 



sich die Talmudlehrer entschieden gegen die Annahme der Ewigkeit der 
Hollenstrafen." Hamburger Talmudisches W<irterbuch : S. V. Holle. 

40 ;The Vat. MS. reads "transgression," and Griesbach has placed amar- 
tematos in the margin. Grotius, Mille and Bengel prefer this reading, which 
is according to the Coptic, Armenian, Gothic, Vulgate, and all the Itala, but 
two. 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 133 

Matt., pp. 227-229), "For it would not be truly said of some, 
that they are forgiven neither in this age (seculo) nor in the 
future, were there not some who, though not in this, are for- 
given in the future." If the future is to consist of ceons, and 
ceons of ceons, and the sinner does not find forgiveness in 
this or the next, it by no means follows that he will not in some 
future aeon. The thought of the Savior is, that those who 
should attribute his good deeds to an evil spirit would be so 
hardened that his religion would have greater difficulty in affect- 
ing them than when guilty of any other sin. Endless damnation 
is not thought of, and cannot be extorted from the lan- 
guage. 

In the New Testament the "end of the age" and "ages" is 
a common expression, referring to what has now passed. See 
Col. i : 26 ; Heb. ix : 26 ; Matt, xiii : 39, 40, 49, xxiv : 3. Says 
Locke, 41 "The nation of the Jaws were the kingdom and peo- 
ple of God whilst the law stood. And this kingdom of God, 
under the Mosaic constitution, was called c ion outos, this age, 
or, as it is commonly translated, this world. But the kingdom 
of God, which was to be under the Messiah, wherein the economy 
and constitution of the Jewish church, and the nation itself, that 
in opposition to Christ adhered to it, was to be laid aside, is 
in the New Testament called aion mellon, the world or age to 
come." Another writer 42 adds, ""Why the times under the 
law were called kronol aionioi, we may find reason in their 
jubilees, which were atones, 'secula,' or 'ages,' by which all 
the time under the law, was measured; and so kronoi aidnioi 
is used, H. Tim. i : 9 ; Tit. i : 2. And so atones are put for the 
times of the law, or the jubilees, Luke i : 70 ; Acts iii : 21 ; I. Cor. 
ii : 7, x : 11 ; Eph. iii : 9 ; Col. i : 26 ; Heb. ix : 26. And so God is 
called the rock of aionos, of age (Isa. xxvi:4), in the same 
sense that he is called the rock of Israel (Isa. xxx : 29), i. e., the 
strength and support of the Jewish state ; — for it is of the Jews 

41 Notes on Galatians i. 

"Burthog's Christianity a Kevealed Mystery, pp. 17-18. Note on Bom. 
x\i:23. 



134 AION-AIONIOS. 

the prophet here speaks. So, Ex. xxi : 6, els ton aiona sig- 
nifies, not as Ave translate it, 'forever,' but 'to the jubilee'; 
which will appear, if we compare Lev. xxv: 39-41, and Ex. 
xxi : 2." Pearce, 43 in his commentary, says, "Rather, neither in 
this age nor in the age to come, i. e., neither in this age, 
when the law of Moses subsists, nor in that, also, when the 
kingdom of heaven, which is at hand, shall succeed to it. The 
Greek aion seems to signify age here, as it often does in the 
New Testament (see chap, xiii : 40, xxiv : 3 ; Col. i : 26 ; Eph. 
iii : 9, 21), and according to its most proper signification. If 
this be so, then this age means the Jewish one, the age while 
their law subsisted and was in force ; and the age to come (see 
Heb. vi : 6 ; Eph. ii : 9) means that under the Christian dispen- 
sation." Wakefield observes, 44 "Age, aioni; i. e., the Jewish 
dispensation, which was then in being, or the Christian, which 
was going to be." Clarke, 45 "Though I follow the common 
translation (Matt, xii : 31, 32), yet I am fully satisfied the 
meaning of the words is, neither in this dispensation, viz., the 
Jewish, nor in that which is to come, the Christian. Olam 
ha-bo, the world to come, is a constant phrase for the times of 
the Messiah, in the Jewish writers." See also Hammond, 
Rosenmiiller, etc. 40 Take Hebrews ix : 26, as an example : 
"For then must he (Christ) often have suffered since the 
foundation of the world (kosmos, literally world), but now once 
in the end of the ivorld {aionOn, ages) hath he appeared to 
put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." "What world was at 
its end w r hen Christ appeared? Indubitably the Jewish age. 
The world or age to come {aion) must be the Christian dis- 
pensation, as in I. Cor. x : 11, where Paul says that upon him 
and his contemporaries "the ends of the world are come." 
These passages state in strong language the heinous nature 
of the sin referred to. The age or world to come is not beyond 
the grave, but it is the Christian dispensation. It had a 



43 Notes on Matt, xii : 31-32. 44 Com. in loco. 

45 Ibid. 46 Paige's Selections. 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 135 

beginning eighteen centuries ago, and it will end when Jesus 
shall have delivered the kingdom to God, the Father, and (I. 
Cor. xv) when God shall be all in all. 

Matt, xviii : 8, ""Wherefore, if thy hand or thy foot offend 
thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for 
thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two 
hands, or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire." Matt. 
xxv : 41 uses the same phraseology, "The everlasting fire, 
£>repared for the devil and his angels." Also Jude 7, "Even 
as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like 
manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going 
after strange flesh, are set forth for an exam/pie, suffering the 
vengeance of eternal fire." It is better to enter into the 
Christian life maimed, that is, be deprived of some arjparent 
advantage comparable to an eye, foot, or hand, than to keep 
all worldly advantages, and suffer the penalty of rejecting 
Christ, typified by fire, is the meaning of Matt, xviii : 8 ; and 
Jude 7 teaches that Sodom and Gomorrah are an example of 
seonian fire. But that fire has expired. That the fire referred 
to is not endless, is shown by the use of the term in the Bible. 
"God is a consuming fire" (Heb. xii : 29), but it is a "refiner's 
fire" (Mai. iii : 2-3). It consumes the evil, and refines away the 
dross of error and sin. This corroborates the meaning we have 
shown to belong to the word expressive of the fire's duration. 
But whatever may be the purpose of the fire, it is not endless, — 
it is seonian. Benson 47 well says : — "The fire which consumed 
Sodom, etc., might be called eternal, as it burned until it utterly 
consumed them, beyond the possibility of their being inhab- 
ited or rebuilt. But the word will have a yet more emphat- 
ical meaning, if (as several authors affirm) that fire continued 
to burn a long while. If the fires burned but a short time, 
however, the example has lasted through the subsequent ages, 
or seons, and was therefore seonian, a continual warning." 
Albert Barnes, in his notes, gives the exact view, "The destruc- 



« Paige's Com., Vol. VI., p. 368. 



136 AION-AIONIOS. 

tion was as entire and perpetual as if the fires had been always 
burning." The fact that Sodom and Gomorrah "are set forth," 
shows that the example is in this world. The fire, the destruc- 
tion, the example, the vengeance, are all in this world ; hence 
they are said to be set forth. Besides, in the account of the 
destruction of these cities, recorded in Genesis, not a word is 
said of any fire or punishment beyond the present life. The 
apostle appeals to the fate of those cities as a perpetual exam- 
ple. This is the utmost of his meaning. Canon Earrar 48 says, 
"The expression 'quenchless fire,' — for the phrase 'that never 
shall be quenched' is a simple mistranslation — is taken from 
Is. lxvi : 24, and is purely a figure of speech, as it is there, or 
as it is in Homer's Iliad, xvi : 123." In his appendix to the 
volume he observes, "It was in answer to the bitter taunt of 
Celsus, that the God of the Christians kindled a fire in which 
all except Christians should be burned, that Origen first 
argued that the fire should possess a purifying quality (kathar- 
siori) for all those who had in themselves any materials for it 
to consume." In fact, in Mark ix: 43, the word "never" in the 
sentence "never shall be quenched," is added without warrant, 
by the translators. The word as bestos {aofieoTov) is as correctly 
rendered unquenched as unquenchable, and in either case 
the word is used, as when we say of a conflagration it burned 
unquenchably, meaning that it could not be put out till it 
had spent its fury. Says Dr. "Whiton in "Is Eternal Punish- 
ment Endless" (p. 19) : — "Dr. Hodge, in his 'System of Theol- 
ogy' (iii : 877), well exemplifies the ease with which an assumed 
meaning can be read into Scripture. He says, 'It is to be 
remembered that, admitting the word everlasting to be ever 
so ambiguous, the Bible says that the worm never dies, and 
the fire is never quenched. "We have, therefore, the direct asser- 
tion of the word of God that the sufferings of the lost are 
unending.' A more unfounded statement could hardly be made. 
To illustrate this, let us suppose the correctness of the doubt- 
ful statements that in the valley of Hinnom (Hebrew, 



48 Eternal Hope, Consequences of Sin. 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 137 

Gehenna) the worm-breeding offal and filth of Jerusalem 
were consumed by ever-burning fires. It is certain that to such 
a place (whether a real or an imaginary place makes no differ- 
ence) the words, 'where their worm dieth not and the fire is not 
quenched' (Mark ix: 48), could be applied with literal correct- 
ness. But no one would find the idea of ab3olute endlessness 
in such an expression. How, then, could Dr. Hodge find in 
the expression as figuratively used, a 'direct assertion' of end- 
lessness which is not in the expression as literally used, unless 
he should import it furtively from his imagination, or some 
more reliable extraneous source ? Such text-stuffing is as much 
of a fraud in its way, however unconscious, as ballot-stuffing. " 

H. Thess. i : 9, "Who shall be punished with everlasting 
destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory 
of his power. " Everlasting destruction (dTtetipov alu>vtov\ does not 
signify remediless ruin, but long banishment from God's pres- 
ence. This is what sin does for the soul. Oletliros is not 
annihilation, but desolation. It is found but four times in 
the New Testament,— I. Thess. v: 3; I. Cor. v: 5; I. Tim. vi: 
9. The passage in I. Cor. shows us how it is used : "Deliver 
such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the 
spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." The 
destruction here is not final — it is conditional to the saving of 
the spirit. Everlasting destruction is equivalent to prolonged 
desolation. 

H. Pet. ii : 17, "These are wells without water, clouds that 
are carried with a tempest ; to whom the mist of darkness is 
reserved forever." Jude 13, "Eaging waves of the sea, foaming 
out their own shame ; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the 
blackness of darkness forever." "To whom is always reserved 
the blackness of darkness," would be a correct paraphrase of 
this language. Those referred to are like trees that bear no 
fruit, clouds that yield no water, foaming waves, stars that give 
no light. Endless duration was not thought of by Peter 



138 AION-AIONIOS. 

or Jude. Indefinite duration, ages, is the utmost meaning of 
eis aidna, which is spurious in II. Pet. ii : 17, but genuine in 
Jude 13. . The literal meaning is, "for an age." Eternity cannot 
be extorted from the phrase. 

Heb. vi: 2, "The doctrine of the seonian (aionion) judg- 
ment." We make no special explanation of this passage. 
Whether the judgment of that age or the age to come, the 
Christian, is meant, matters not. "The judgment of the age" 
is the full force of the phrase aionion judgment. 

An illuminating side-light is thrown on this subject "by 
commentators on I. Pet. iii : 18-20, in which Christ is said to 
have "preached unto the spirits in prison." Alford says our 
Lord "did preach salvation in fact, to the disembodied spirits," 
etc. Tayler Lewis : 49 — "There was a work of Christ in Hades ; 
he makes proclamation (eiajrpvijev) in Hades to those who are there 
in ward. This interpretation, which was almost universally 
adopted by the early Christian church," etc. Prof. Huide- 
koper : 50 — "In the second and third centuries every branch and 
division of Christians believed that Christ preached to the 
departed." Dietelmair 51 says this doctrine "in omni coetu 
Christiano creditum." Why preach salvation to souls whose 
doom was fixed for eternity? And how could Christians 
believe in that doctrine and at the same time give the seonian 
words the meaning of eternal duration ? 

It is a pity that the noun (aion) has not always been ren- 
dered by the English word eon, or aeon, and the adjective by 
eonian or seonian ; then all confusion would have been avoided. 
Webster's Unabridged defines it as meaning a space or period 
of time, an era, epoch, dispensation, or cycle, etc. He also 
gives it the sense ©f eternity, but no one could have misunder- 

49 Lange, on Ecclesiastes. 

so Mission to the Underworld, pp. 51-22. 

61 .Historia Dogmatis de Descensu Christi ad Inferos. Chs. iv-vi. 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT 139 

stood, had it been rendered aeon. Suppose our translation 
read, "What shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of 
the seon?" "The smoke of their torment shall ascend for aeons 
of aeons." "These shall go away into seonian chastisement, " 
etc. The idea of eternity would not be found in the noun, 
nor of endless duration in the adjective, and the New Testa- 
ment would be read as its authors intended. 

The last resort of theologians has been to insist that the 
noun preceded by the preposition els denotes absolute eternity, 
and that the phrase els ton aiona, 52 m the New Testament, must- 
be so understood. In the Chicago discussion in the Times and 
Inter-Ocean of that city, in which the author of this volume 
maintained the negative, and Prof. J. R. Boise, D. D., Rev. 
Galusha Anderson, D. D., and Rev. G. R. Noyes, D. D., 
the affirmative, this point was made and strenuously 
insisted on from these passages : — Rev. xiv : 11, "And the smoke 
of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever (for aeons of 
aeons), and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the 
beast and his image, and w r hosoever receiveth the mark of his 
name." Xix: 3, "And her (Babylon's) smoke rose up for ever 
and ever" (for the aeons of the aeons). Xx : 10, "And the 
devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and 
brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall 
be tormented day and night forever and ever" (for the aeons of 
the aeons). Itis said that these reduplications, if no other forms 
of the word, convey the idea of eternity. But the literal mean- 
ing of eis aionas aionon (dc aluvag aiuvuv) in the first text above, 
is ages of ages, and of els tons aionas ton aionon (Aq roiq aitivag 
Tuv alavuv) in the other two, is the ages of the ages. It is thus 
rendered in the "Emphatic Diaglot." It is perfectly manifest 
to the commonest mind that if one age is limited, no number can 
be unlimited. Ages of ages is an intense expression of long 
duration, and if the word alon should be rendered eternity, 
"eternities of eternities" ought to be the translation, an expres- 



140 AION-AIONIOS. 

sion too absurd to require comment. If a ion means eternity, 
any number of reduplications would weaken it. But while 
ages of ages is proper enough, eternity of eternities would be 
ridiculous. On this phraseology Sir Isaac Newton 53 says, 
"The ascending of the smoke of any burning thing forever 
and ever, is put for the continuation of a conquered people 
under the misery of perpetual subjection and slavery." The 
thought of eternal duration was not in the mind of Jesus or 
his apostles in any of these texts, but long duration, to be 
determined by the subject. 

Aion governed by els is limited in twenty-nine passages: 
Matt, xxi : 19 ; Mark xi : 14 ; Luke i : 55 ; John iv : 14, vi : 51, 58, ix, : 
32, x : 28, xiii : 8, xiv : 16 ; I. Cor. viii : 13 ; Heb. v : 6, vi : 5, 20, 
vii : 17, 21, etc. In Heb. v : 6 our translation reads, "Thou art 
a priest j or ever" but the literal is, "Thou art a priest for the 
age," that is, the Christian age or dispensation. In I. Cor. 
viii : 13, Paul says he will "eat no meat while the world stand- 
eth" (eis ton aiona), that is, while he lives. Both these pas- 
sages denote limited duration, as any reader can see. So in 
Luke i : 55, "Ashe spake to our fathers, to Abraham and to his 
seed forever" — says our translation, but "of old" or "anciently" 
is the real rendering. The usage is the same in the New Tes- 
tament as in the Old. Ms governs aion in Ex. xxi: 6, — "The 
servant was a slave forever" (eis ton aiona), and yet all slaves 
were set free every fifty years ! The same form is found in 
Eccl. i : 4, and elsewhere. 

Professor Boise declared in the Chicago secular press: 
— "The strongest form of expression in the New Tes- 
tament, in fact in the Greek language, ever used to denote 
unending existence, is that combination of aion translated into 
English, 'forever and ever.' It is the phrase, eis aionos 
aionon, or eis tons aionos ton aionon. I cannot conceive 
of any word or any combination of words, in the Greek language, 
or in any other language, which will convey the idea of eternal 
duration in the future with more freedom from ambiguity and 

63 Daniel and Revelations, Lond. ed., 1733. 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 141 

misconception, or with more solemn emphasis, than this one. 
If this phrase is inadequate, then every phrase is inadequate 
to the purpose. If this phrase is a failure, then all human 
language is a failure and a delusion. But we are not thus left 
without ideas, and words to convey them in ; and of all lan- 
guages, the Greek is acknowledged to be the most perspicuous. 
It is a remarkable fact, which every thoughtful man ought 
seriously to consider, that this phrase, translated 'forever and 
ever,' is predicated alike and without qualification of three 
ideas. These three ideas are, God's existence, the punishment 
of the wicked, and the happiness of the righteous. A few 
examples will suffice. 'To him that sitteth upon the throne, 
that liveth forever and ever' (els tous aionos ton alonon). 
'They shall be tormented day and night forever and ever 9 
(els tous alonas ton alonon). They shall reign forever and 
ever ' (els tous aionas ton alonon). All these expressions are 
predicated in the New Testament of somebody. They assert 
the eternity of three things : of him who sitteth on the throne 
of torment day and night to somebody, of triumph and domin- 
ion to somebody. The eternity of the ihree things is affirmed 
in the same words. It would be easy to multiply examples like 
the foregoing." 

Now, any careful reader must perceive that this is an 
example of the Hebraistic use of words in the Greek language. 
When the Jew wished to express a superlative thing, his only 
way was to duplicate the word. He still retained this habit in 
speaking Greek, and many instances of it occur in the New 
Testament. All that this "forever and ever" meansis a very 
great duration. In reference to this dernier ressort, we remark : 

1. These phrases cannot be found, or any thing resembling 
them, applied to sinners, more than twice in the whole New 
Testament. If they are vital, would they not be found over and 
over again, not only from Matthew, but from Genesis to Rev- 
elations ? 

2. Jesus never employs the language. "Would he not 
repeat it over and over again, if it possesses the meaning 
claimed for it ? And yet he entirely omits it. 



142 AION-AIONIOS. 

3. Paul never describes the sinner's fate by the use of 
these terms. He "declared the whole counsel of God." Would 
he have omitted this phraseology if it unequivocally describes 
endless woe ? 

4. The only places in which it is found are in Jude once, 
and Eevelations, toward the very end of that,- confessedly, the 
obscurest part of the Bible. 

5. Even John uses it but once, and then he does not apply 
it to ordinary sinners, but to false worshipers. If the sinner's 
final torment is unanswerably taught by these words, would it 
not be repeatedly stated in the plainest parts of the Bible ? 

6. The same and similar terms are found in the Old Tes- 
tament again and again. A brief glance at the Septuagint 
shows us the following: — eis ton aiona is applied to less than 
fifty years of servitude, in Ex. xxi : 6 ; Lev. xxv : 46 ; Deut. xv : 
17 ; to the smoke of Idumea, long since vanished, in Isa. xxxiv : 
10; to Judah, Joeliii: 20; to the reign. of a prince, in Ezek. 
xxxvii: 25; eis aiona aionos is spoken of the stay of the 
righteous in the land, in Ps. xxxvii : 29 ; eos aionos describes 
Abraham and his posterity in Luke i : 55 ; eis ton aiona tou 
aionas refers to the official service of a priest, in Ps. ex : 4 ; and 
to a covenant, in Ps. cxi : 9 ; eis kai eos aionos describes the 
time that the land was to be possessed, in Jer. vii : 7 ; and so 
does ap aionos kai eos aionos in Jer. xxv : 5. And yet all 
these reduplications denote limited duration. 

7. Thus, if the smoke of Idumea has ceased (Isa. xxxiv : 
10), which was to be eis ton aiona (for the age), why will not 
the smoke in Kev. xx : 10, which is eis tons aionas ton aionon 
(for the age of the ages) ? "An age" is a certain length of time. 
"Ages of ages" is but a reduplication of age. 

8. Orthodox critics never give their readers literal trans- 
lations of the words. They conceal the real meaning of the 
sacred writers behind an exceedingly "free" rendering. "For- 
ever" and "forever and ever," is the translation of theologians, 
and not of scholars. 

9. If the word means eternity, reduplication is improper. 
To say "an eternal eternity," "an eternity of eternities," 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 143 

weakens and does not strengthen the solemn meaning of the 
word "eternity." But age can be thus strengthened by plurals 
and intense reduplications. "An age of ages" is longer than 
"an age," but an "eternity of eternities" is nonsense. 

10. The stereotyped argument is, that God, the saint's 
happiness and the sinner's misery, must be of the same dura- 
tion, because the same Greek phrase describes each. Let us 
see how this will work with another word. We find the word 
"great" applied to evil, I. Sam. vi : 9 ; to earthly kings, Ps. 
cxxxvi : 17 ; to men, Nahum iii : 10 ; to merchants, Rev. xviii : 
3 ; to the sea, John xv : 12 ; to a stone, Gen. xxix : 3 ; and to 
God, II. Sam. vii : 22 ; therefore kings, men, merchants, the 
sea, stones, and God, are all of the same size ! This is not 
sound theology, good reasoning, nor common sense. 

11. Such reasoning entirely ignores the Old Testament. 
Manifestly those for whom John intended the Apocalypse 
would understand these phrases just as they were used in the 
Old Testament. That meaning is limited duration. 

12. Paul's declaration, I. Cor. viii : 13, "I will eat no meat" 
(els ton alona), E. Y., "while the world standeth," literally 
means, so long as I live. It has the same force as in Ex. xxi : 
6, where the servant "shall serve his master (eis ton aiona) 
'forever,' " that is, till the year of jubilee only. 

13. The language "day nor night," restricts the applica- 
tion of the language to this world. 

14. If it requires eis to give aion the meaning of eternity, 
then aion of itself has no such meaning, so that every particle 
of stress that is placed on els is removed from aionios and other 
forms of the word. The argument weakens the force of the 
word, on the whole, instead of strengthening it. 

15. Dr. "Whiton observes in "Is Eternal Punishment End- 
less," "The fact is, that the New Testament use of the phrase 
exactly corresponds to the Old Testament use of it in the 
LXX, where, as Dr. Tayler Lewis observes, 'immense extremes' 
occur 'in the use of the word.' He cites for comparison Ex. 
xxi : 6, the servant who does not' wish to be freed 'shall serve 



144 AION-AIONIOS. 

his master forever' (for the aeon) ; and Deut. xxxii : 40, where 
God says, 'I live forever' (for the seon). Here, temporal ser- 
vitude and divine existence are comprehended "within the elastic 
limits of the same phrase. Compare John viii : 35, and xii : 
34. In the English, also, we often use the word 'forever' with 
exclusive reference to the present world, — precisely as the Scrip- 
ture often employs eis tonaiona — as, in legal phraseology, 'to 
his heirs and assigns forever.' The result of a critical analysis 
of all the passages where the phrase occurs is this : It uni- 
formly denotes, not 'duration without end,' but permanent 
duration, — permanent according to the nature of the subject, 
covering in one case merely the period during which a blasted 
fig-tree stands, and in another, the eternity of our Lord. To 
affirm that it always implies duration without end, is as con- 
trary to the fact as to affirm that it never does." 

16. Dr. Robinson, in his New Testament Lexicon, seems to 
be the authority for this opinion, which hangs eternity on a 
preposition ! If he is correct, the poet's words are indeed true : 
"Great God, on what a slender thread, hang everlasting 
things." But the very proofs Dr. Robinson cites, are against 
him. He refers to the passages in Hebrews that speak of 
Christ as a priest forever, forgetting that Christ's priesthood 
is to end when he shall have accomplished his work. Hence, 
Prof. Stuart declares,* 4 " 'For the ;eon' is to betaken in a quali- 
fied sense here, as often elsewhere; e. g., compare Luke i: 33, 
with I. Cor. xv : 24-28. The priesthood of Christ will doubt- 
less continue no longer than his mediatorial reign ; for, when 
his reign as mediator ceases, his whole work, both as mediator 
and as priest, will have been accomplished." 

Considering the connection, and all the'circumstances, the 
passages containing the preposition and the reduplications of 
the word, are the weakest forms of the phraseology for the 
advocates of the theory that it means endless. They are simple 
multiplications of limited terms to denote long, but finite, 
duration. And any student who will divest himself of 

54 Com. Heb., p. 340. 



USAGE — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 145 

theological bias, and consult the words as a scholar, will 
agree with one of the greatest of England's theologians, 
Canon Farrar, who observes, 55 "It seems to me that if 
many passages of Scripture be taken quite literally, universal 
restoration is unequivocally taught, just as, if many passages 
be taken quite literally, the final annihilation of the wicked is 
taught ; but that endless torments ara nowhere clearly taught 
— the passages which appear to teach that doctrine being 
either obviously figurative or historically misunderstood. If 
the decision be made to turn solely on the literal meaning of 
Scripture, I have no hesitation whatever in declaring my 
strong conviction that the Universalist and Annihilist theories 
have far more evidence of this sort for them than the popular 
view. " 

To his testimony may be added that of one of Germany's 
greatest theologians, De Wette, who declares 56 that "the 
doctrine of eternal damnation cannot in any wise be retained, 
if we take the word eternal in a strict and absolute sense. For 
whatever is eternally damned must have been created in a 
state of eternal damnation, for eternity has no beginning." 

Let the reader now recall the usage as we have presented 
it, and then reflect that all the forms of the word are applied 
to the punishment of human beings only fourteen times in the 
New Testatament, and ask himself the question, "Is it possible 
that so momentous a doctrine as this is only stated so small a 
number of times in divine revelation?" If it has the sense of 
limited duration, this is consistent enough, for then it will be 
classed with the other terms that describe the divine judgments. 
The fact that so many of those who speak or write never 
employ it at all, and that all of them together use it but fourteen 
times to qualify punishment, is a demonstration that he who 
has made known his will, and who would of all things have 
revealed so appalling a fate as endless woe, if he had it in j3rep- 
aration, has no such doom in store for immortal souls. 



55 Eternal Hope. 56 Theolog. Zeitscnrift, Zweites Heft, S. 120. 

10 



146 AI0N-AI0NI0S. 

Let us now corroborate the conclusions we have reached, 
by consulting the Early Christians, who obtained their opinions 
from the apostles themselves, and who, of course, used these 
terms with their Bible meanings. 



USAGE.— V.— THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. 



The positions we have taken concerning the meaning of 
the seonian phraseology are corroborated and reenforced by 
Christian and other Greek writers in the early centuries of 
the church. They derived the terms they employed directly 
from the apostles themselves, and used them as the apostles 
used them. Certainly nothing can cast a backward illumina- 
tion on the New Testament, and teach us the full meaning of 
our controverted words, as Jesus and the apostles understood 
them, so well as the language of the Christian Fathers and the 
Early Church. We will therefore consult those who were 
perfectly familiar with the Greek tongue, and who passed the 
word along down the ages, from the apostles to their succes- 
sors, for more than five hundred years. 

Prof. Tayler Lewis, 1 in the course of learned disquisitions 
on the meaning of the olamic and reonian words of the Bible, 
refers to the oldest version of the New Testament, the Syriac, 
or the Peshito, and tells us how these words are rendered in 
this first form of the New Testament : — "So is it ever in the 
old Syriac version, where the one rendering is still more 
unmistakably clear. These shall go into the pain of the olam 
(aion y the world to come), and these to the life of the olam 

1 Lange's Excursus on Ecc. i : 3. 



USAGE— THE EARLY CHRISTIAN'S. 147 

(aion, the world to come)." He refers to Matt, xix: 16; Mark 
x : 17 ; Luke xviii : 18 ; John iii : 15 ; Acts xiii : 46 ; I. Tim. vi : 
12, in which aionios is rendered belonging to olam, or 
world to come. Eternal life, the words in Matt. xxv:46, 
are rendered in the Peshito "the life of the world to come." 
Thus this eminent scholar, one of the best of modern critics, 
testifies that the earliest New Testament version did not 
give endless as the meaning of the word. Of Prof. Lewis, Dr. 
Beecher writes, 2 "We are not to suppose that so eminent an 
orthodox divine says these things in support of Universalism, 
a system which he decidedly and earnestly rejects." 

The Apostles' Creed is the earliest Christian formula. 
The idea of endless torment is not hinted. "I believe in God, 
the Father Almighty; and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten 
Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary by the Holy 
Ghost, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, buried, rose from 
the dead on the third day, ascended to the heavens, and sits 
on the right hand of the Father ; whence he will come, to 
judge the living and the dead ; and in the Holy Spirit ; the 
holy church ; the remission of sins ; and the resurrection of 
the body." 3 

The New Testament was not compiled until A. D. 170, 
and the early church depended entirely on the Old Testament 
and tradition. Westcott says, 4 "The knowledge of the teach- 
ings of Christ and of the details of his life, to the close of the 
second century, were generally derived from tradition, and 
not from writings." Hence, as Beecher truly says, 5 "The 
account of the last judgment by Christ, and of the consequent 
retributions of eternal life, and eternal punishment . . is 
not referred to at all in the writings of the apostolic fathers, 
and is prominently brought forward for the first time in writ- 
ing, in the latter part of the second century, by Justin Mar- 
tyr and L-enreus." 

"A comparison of the Nicene Creed with the Apostles' 



s Hist. Fut. Ret. 3 Murdoch's Mosheim, Vol. I., p. 96. 

* Intr. to Gos., p. 181. & Hi S t. Fut. Eet., p. 71. 



148 AION-AIONIOS. 

Creed shows that aeonian had the same force in ecclesiastical 
as in the inspired writings. The Apostles' Creed (at least as 
early as A. D. 200) confesses belief in "the aeonian life" 
(English, "life everlasting"). The Niceno-Constantinopolitan 
Creed (A. D. 381) gives as the equivalent of this, "the life of 
the future aeon" (English, "world to come"). Precisely thus 
the old Syriac Version (A. D. 100-150) rendered Matt, xxv: 
46, "These shall go away to the pain of the 'olam, and these 
to the life of the 'olam" (or aeon). 6 " 

Our first reference to the patristic writers shall be to 
Ignatius/ who says the reward of piety "is incorruptibility and 
eternal life," "love incorruptible and perpetual life." Here the 
aeonian life is strengthened by "incorruptible," showing that 
the word aionion alone was in his mind unequal to the task 
of expressing endless duration. He says, also, that Jesus "was 
manifested to the ages" (tots aiosin). Of course, he intended 
to use no such ridiculous expression as "to the eternities." 

The Sibylline Oracles (dated variously by different 
writers from 500 B. C. to 150 A. D.) teach aeonian suffering 
and universal salvation beyond, showing how the word was 
then understood. The prophetess, who professed to write 
the Oracles, describes the saints as petitioning God for the 
salvation of the damned. Thus entreated, she says, "God will 
deliver them from the devouring fire and aionion gnashing of 
teeth. " Restoration beyond aeonian gnashing of teeth is here 
taught. 

Justin Martyr 8 taught aeonian suffering, and annihilation 
afterward. The wicked "are tormented as long as God wills 
that they should exist and be tormented. 
Souls both suffer punishment and die." 9 He uses the expres- 
sion eis ton aperanton aiona.™ "The wicked undergo 
aeonian punishment, and not for a thousand years, as Plato 
asserted." Here punishment is announced as limited. This 



6 Dr. Whiton's Is Eternal Puni hmen Endless ? p. 72. 

7 A. D. 115. 8 A. D. 140-2Q2. 

s Dialogue with Trypho, Chs. v, vi. 10 Apol. Prim, cxxvii. 



USAGE — THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. 149 

is evident from the fact that Justin Martyr taught the annihi- 
lation of the "wicked : they are to be "tormented for the bound- 
less a?on," and then annihilated. His language is, "But I do 
not say, indeed, that all souls die ; for that were certainly a rjiece 
of good fortune for the wicked. What, then ? The souls of 
the pious remain in a better place, while those of the unjust 
and wicked are in a worse, waiting for the time of judgment. 
Thus, some who have appeared worthy of God never die ; but 
others are punished so long as God wills them to exist and 
he punished." 

In the Orphica, referred to by Justin Martyr, occurs 
this passage, "Nor shall former things deprive you of dear 
life (<pi.'/.;jg aluvog)." The date of these words is unknown, but 
Justin quotes them about A. D. 160, without explanation, so 
that they must have been intelligible then to ordinary readers. 
Hence, the literal meaning of "life" must have prevailed 160 
years after Christ. 

Irenseus n says, " The unjust shall be sent into inextin- 
guishable and seonian fire," and yet he taught that the wicked 
are to be annihilated. 12 "When it is necessary that the soul 
should no longer exist, the vital spirit leaves it, and the soul 
is no more, but returns thither whence it was taken." 
Dr. Beecher pertinently observes, 13 "What, then, are the 
facts as to Ireineus ? Since he has been canonized as a saint, 
and since he stood in such close connection with Poly carp 
and with John, the apostle, there has been a very great 
reluctance to admit the real facts of the case. Massuetus 
has employed much sophistry in endeavoring to hide them. 
Nevertheless, as we shall clearly show hereafter, they are 
incontrovertibly these: that he taught a final restitution 
of all things to unity and order by the annihilation of all 
the finally impenitent. Ex£>ress statements of his in his 
creed, and in a fragment referred to by Prof. Schaff, on 
universal restoration, 14 and in other parts of his great work 



1 ! Cont. Her. II, xxxiv. * 2 Ibid. 

is Hist. Fut. Re.. « Hist. Chr. Ch. 



150 AlON-AIONIOS. 

against the Gnostics, prove this beyond all possibility of refu- 
tation. The inference from this is plain. He did not under- 
stand aionios in the sense of eternal ; but in the sense claimed 
by Prof. Lewis, that is, pertaining to the world to come." 
These are the words : — "Christ will do away with all evil, and 
make an end of all impurities. " He further says 15 that cer- 
tain persons "shall not receive from him (the Creator) length 
of days forever and ever." Thus the word denoted limited 
duration in his time, A. D. 170-200. 

So Hermogenes, 13 who believed that all sinful beings will 
finally cease to be, must have understood Christ as applying 
aionion to punishment in the sense of limited duration, or he 
would not have believed in annihilation. 

Titus of Bostra (340-370 A. D.) Dr. White informs us that 
he has discovered al&v many times in "Against- the Manicheans," 
by this father. Prof. Parker, of Lombard University, has trans- 
lated several passages which follow. In the passage below 
marked 2, a free rendering is given of the preceding extract 
from section 27, that the meaning may be clear. In the para- 
graph marked 1 will be found the main passages, with the Greek 
words cited. 

1. Titus says (section 18), "During the interval of the time 
(alojvoc) until now" ; and in the same connection," during periods 
(aluvag) ten thousand times this"; and of a definite period 
he says, "It would be but a point of time, if it should be compared 
with the preceding boundless periods (cirre/poic aiuci), for the 
former having a beginning and an end, has been completed, 
but the latter are altogether boundless, eternal (di6iot), and unbe- 
gotten. " In section 27 he speaks of " so great a period"(««jw*)j and 
in the same section says, "not for the shortest period of time 
(aitiva), but for one complete (b2nv) and boundless" 
(airAt tov). We give the whole context from section 27 in the 
next paragraph. 

2. "Now, it is the more absurd, if God, wishing to rescue 



15 Sehaff, Vol. II., pp. 504, 573. 
1SA.D. 260. 



USAGE — THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. 151 

the eartli from evil, lias given it (the power of good) over to the 
outrage and destruction of its very essence by its remaining 
so long a time to dwell with what is bad, to share with it and 
to sin with it. That the essence of God should suffer this for 
at least one hour, or a point of time, so that it may be brought 
under subjection to what is bad, and may sin with it, would be 
the most absurd of all things." Again, speaking of the power 
of evil he says, "If its attack on the earth in respect to the 
disarrangement of matter is not to be endured, how much 
more is so great servitude and subjection of the nature of God 
unbearable ? and not for the shortest period of time, but for 
one entire and boundless." 

In these passages the adjectives are more than ever signifi- 
cant. Titus is careful to speak of a ichole as well as a boundless 
ttl6y } and calls it aUioQ also. Nothing can better demonstrate the 
actual meaning of the term than such an employment of it. 

Origen used the expressions "aionion fire" and "aionion 
punishment" to express his idea of the duration of pun- 
ishment. Yet he believed that in all cases sin and suffering 
would cease and be followed by salvation. He was the most 
learned man of his time, and his example proves that a lonion 
did not mean endless at the time he wrote (A. D. 200-253). 
Dr. Beecher says, 17 "As an introduction to his system of the- 
ology, he states certain great facts as a creed believed by all 
the church. In these he states the doctrine of future retribu- 
tion as a ion 101 1 life, and aionion punishment, using the words 
of Christ. Now, if Origen understood aionion as meaning 
strictly eternal, then to pursue such a course would involve 
him in gross and palpable self-contradiction. But no one 
can hide the facts of the case. After setting forth the creed 
of the church as already stated, including aionion punish- 
ment, he forthwith proceeds, with elaborate reasoning, again 
and again to prove the doctrine of universal restoration. The 
conclusion from these facts is obvious : Origen did not under- 
stand aionios as meaning eternal, but rather as meaning per- 
il Hist. Fut. Ret., pp. 176-189. 



152 AION-AIONIOS. 

taming to the world to come. . . . Two great 
facts stand out on the page of ecclesiastical history. One, that 
the first system of Christian theology was composed and 
issued by Origen in the year 230 after Christ, of Avhich a fun- 
damental and essential element was the doctrine of the univer- 
sal restoration of all fallen beings to their original holiness 
and union with God. The second is, that after the lapse of a 
little more than three centuries, in the year 544, this doctrine 
was for the first time condemned and anathematized as 
heretical. This was done, not in the general council, but in a 
local council called by the Patriarch Mennas, at Constantin- 
ople, by the order of Justinian. During all this long interval, 
the opinions of Origen and his various writings, were an ele- 
ment of power in the whole Christian world. For a long time 
he stood high, as the greatest luminary of the Christian world. 
He gave an impulse to the leading spirits of subsequent ages 
and was honored by them as their greatest benefactor. At 
last, after all his scholars were dead, in the remote age of Jus- 
tinian, he was anathematized as a heretic of the worst kind. 
The same also was done with res£>ect to Theodore of Mop- 
suestia, of the Antiochian school, who held the doctrine of 
universal restitution on a different basis. This, too, was done 
long after he was dead, in the year 553. From and after this 
point, the doctrine of future eternal punishment reigned with 
undisputed sway during the middle ages that preceded the 
Reformation. What, then, was the state of facts, as to the 
leading theological schools of the Christian world, in the age 
of Origen, and some centuries after? It was, in brief, this: 
There were at least six theological schools in the Church at 
large. Of these six schools, one, and only one, was decidedly 
and earnestly in favor of the doctrine of future eternal punish- 
ment. One was in favor of the annihilation of the wicked. 
Two were in favor of the doctrine of universal restoration 
on the principles of Origen, and two in favor of universal res- 
toration on the principles of Theodore of Mopsuestia. 

"It is also true that the prominent defenders of the doctrine 
of universal restoration were decided believers in the divinity 



USAGE— THE EARLY CHRISTIANS.- 153 

of Christ, in the trinity, in the incarnation and atonement, 
and in the great Christian doctrine of regeneration; and were, 
in piety, devotion, Christian activity and missionary enter- 
prise, as well as in learning and intellectual power and attain- 
ments, inferior to none in the best ages of the church, and 
were greatly superior to those by whom, in after ages, they 
were condemned and anathematized. 

"It is also true that the arguments by which they defended 
their views were never fairly stated and answered. Indeed, 
they were never stated at all. They may admit of a thorough 
answer and refutation, but even if so, they were not condemned 
and anathematized on any such grounds, but simply in obedi- 
ence to the arbitrary mandates of Justinian, whose final argu- 
ments were deposition and banishment for those who refused 
to do his will. 

"Consider, now, who Theodore of Mopsuestia was, not as 
viewed by a slavish packed council, met to execute the will of 
a Byzantine despot, but by one of the most eminent evangeli- 
cal scholars of Germany, — Dorner. Of him he says, 'Theodore 
of Mopsuestia was the crown and climax of the school of 
Antioch. The compass of his learning, his acuteness, and, as 
we must suppose, also, the force of his personal character, con- 
joined with his labors through many years, as a teacher both 
of churches and of young and talented disciples, and as a pro- 
lific writer, gained for him the title of Magister Orientis. He 
labored on uninterruptedly till his death, in the year 427, and 
was regarded with an appreciation the more widely extended 
as he was the first oriental theologian of his time.' " 1S 

Mosheim says of Origen : — "Origen possessed every excel- 
lence that can adorn the Christian character ; uncommon piety 
from Ins very childhood ; astonishing devotedness to that most 
holy religion which he professed ; unequaled perseverance in 
labors and toils for the advancement of the Christian cause; 
untiring zeal for the Church and for the extension of Chris- 
tianity; an elevation of soul which placed him above all ordi- 

18 Doctrine of Person of Christ., Div. II., Vol. I., p. 50, Edinburgn. 



154 aion-aiunios. 

nary desires or fears ; a most permanent contempt of wealth, 
honor, pleasures, and of death itself ; the purest trust in the 
Lord Jesus, for whose sake, when he was old and oppressed 
with ills of every kind, he patiently and perseveringly endured 
the severest sufferings. It is not strange, therefore, that he 
was held in so high estimation, both while he lived and after 
death. Certainly, if any man deserves to stand first in the 
catalogue of saints and martyrs, and to be annually held up as 
an example to Christians, this is the man, for, except the 
apostles of Jesus Christ and their companions, I know of no 
one, among all of those enrolled and honored as saints, who 
excelled him in virtue and holiness." 19 ' 

Now, how could universal salvation have been the prevail- 
ing doctrine in that age of the church, unless the word applied 
to punishment in Matt, xxv : 46, was understood by such men 
as Origen and Theodore, as well as by other Christians, to 
mean limited duration ? 

Eusebius, the father of ecclesiastical history, who was a 
Universalist, says, 20 "If the subjection of the son to the father 
means union with him, then the subjection of all to the son 
means union with him." How could Eusebius be a Univer- 
salist, and regard aionion as meaning endless? And how could 
he describe the darkness preceding creation thus: 21 — "These 
for a long time had no limit," they continued "for a long 
seon" (dlapolun aiona). To say that the darkness that ended 
with the creation, endured for a long eternity, would be absurd 
enough. 

The fact that Origen and others taught reonian punish- 
ment after death, and salvation beyond it, demonstrates that 
in Origen's time the word had not the meaning of endless, but 
did mean at that date, indefinite or limited duration. Also, 
the consideration that those who opposed the Universalist 
fathers never quoted aionios against them, is conclusive evi- 



i 9 Hist. Com. on Christ, befo-e Const ntine, Vol. II., p. 149. 
20 De Ecc. Theol. (>n Migne) VI., p. 1030, on I. Cor. xv : 28. 
21 Hist., Vol. I., p. 173. 



USAGE — THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. 155 

dence that they did not attach the idea of endlessness to the 
word. 

Readers curious to look up the state of opinion during 
the centuries following the age of Origen, can refer to the 
authorities cited below. 22 

Somewhere about a century after the death of John, 
appeared a strange book, evidently written as a fiction, which 
sets forth the views current at the time, namely, "The Gospel 
of Nicodemus. " It describes the ministry of Christ in Hades. 
In part II., chapter 8, it declares that when Jesus arrived at 
Hades, the gates burst open, and taking Adam by the hand, 
Jesus said, "Come all with me, as many as have died through 
the tree which he touched, for behold I raise you all up through 
the tree of the cross." This book shows conclusively that the 
Christians . of that date did not regard peonian punishment 
as interminable, inasmuch as those who were sentenced to 
that condition, were sometimes, at least, released. 

Gregory Nyssen 23 proves that the word had the meaning 
of limited duration in his day. He says, 24 "Whoever considers 
the divine power will plainly perceive that it is able at length 
to restore by means of the aionion purgation and expiatory 
sufferings, those who have gone even to this extremity of 
wickedness." Thus everlasting punishment and salvation 
beyond were taught in the fourth century. 

Augustine 25 was the first known to argue that aionios signi- 
fied endless. He at first maintained that it always meant thus, 
but at length abandoned that ground, and only claimed that 
it had that meaning sometimes. He "was very imperfectly 
acquainted with the Greek language." 2G 

22 Assemanni Bib. Orient., Vol. I., Part i, pp. 223-4, 324.— Diiderlein, Inst. 
Tirol. Christ., Vol. II., pp. 200-1.— Jacbi, Bonn's edition.— Neander's Hist. 
Christian Dogmas.— Guericke, Shedd's translation, pp. 308-340.— Neander, 
Torrey's translation, Vol. II., p. 251-2.— Dorner's Hist. Person of Christ., Vol. 
II., pp. 28, 30, 50.-Dr. Schaff, Hist. Christ. Ch., Vol. II., pp. 731 504.-Gieseler, 
Vol. I., p. 370.— Kurtz, Text Book Christ. Hist., p. 1 37-202. -Hagenbach, 
quoting from Augustine Civitate Dei, Liber. XXL, C ap. xvi. 

23 A. 1). 370-3. 24 De Infantibus, p. 174. 

25 A. D. 430. 20 Ancient Hist. Univ.— See his Confession. 



156 AION-AIONIOS. 

A. D. 410 Avitus brought to Spain, from Jerome, in Pal- 
estine, a translation of Origen, and taught that punishments are 
•not endless; for "though they are called aidnion, yet that 
word in the original Greek does not, according to its etymol- 
ogy and frequent use, signify endless, but refers only to the 
duration of the age." 27 

President "White refers us to the end of the fourth book of 
Manetho's "Influence of the Stars." "These principles (or 
laws) of the heavenly bodies have been created (or formed) by 
which past and present and future time are measured (literally, 
have been measured) by immense jjeriods (en/iErpoig alo>m) i and 
this will continue unto or into the ages («c cuuvag)" Now, the 
latter expression might be rendered "for ever," but the context, 
it would seem, hardly admits of it, for the "principles or laws 
through ^hich the past has been measured by measureless 
ceons,"-weiQ created, i. e., had a beginning, and as the idea of 
absolute eternity cannot obtain with regard to the past, neither 
can it obtain with respect to the future. 

Manetho lived in the third century B.C., but this treatise 
"On the Influence of the Stars," attributed to him, was actually 
written in the fifth century of the Christian era. 

Near the beginning of the sixth book the following pas- 
sage occurs: — "The wisest Homer has spoken of the genera- 
tions of men which the boundless age has produced," (literally, 
fitted or joined together). Boundless or immense age is p-vpiog 
au'dv — (ivplog is applied to a number indefinitely great. These 
passages are especially instructive because of the adjective 
joined to the word aluv. 

In fact, every Universalist and every Annihilationist 
among the fathers of the early church is a standing witness 
testifying that the word was understood as we claim, in their 
day. Believers in the Bible, accej:>tmg its utterances as implicit 
truth, how could they be Universalists or Annihilationists with 
the Greek Bible before them, and aidnion punishment taught 
there, unless they give to the word thus used the meaning of 

27 Hieronymi Epist. 



USAGE — THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. lo i 

limited duration? Accordingly, besides those alluded to 
above, we appeal to those ancient Universalists, the Basili- 
dians (A. D. 130), the Carpocratians (A. D. 140), Clemens 
Alexandrinus (A. D. 190), Gregory Thaumaturgus (A. D. 220- 
50), Ambrose (A. D. 250), Didymus the Blind (A. D. 350-90), 
Diodore of Tarsus (A. D. 370-90), Isidore of Alexandria (A. D. 
370-400), Jerome (A. D. 380-410), Palladius of GaUatia (A. D. 
400), and others, not one of whom could have been a Univer- 
salist unless he ascribed to this word the sense of limited 
duration. To most of them Greek was as familiar as English 
is to us. 

The Emperor Justinian, 28 in calling the celebrated local 
council which assembled in 544, addressed his edict to Mennas, 
Patriarch of Constantinople, and elaborately argued against 
the doctrines he had determined should be condemned. He 
does not say, in defining the Catholic doctrine at that time, 
"We believe in aionion punishment," for that was just what the 
Universalist, Origen himself, taught. Nor does he say, "The 
word aionion has been misunderstood ; it denotes endless dura- 
tion," as he would have said had there been such a disagree- 
ment. But, writing in Greek, with all the words of that lan- 
guage from which to choose, he says, "The holy church of 
Christ teaches an endless alonios (ateleutetos aionios) life to 
the righteous, and endless (ateleutetos) punishment to the 
wicked." Alonios was not enough in his judgment to denote 
endless duration, and he employed ateleutetos, the word of all 
others in the copious Greek tongue that expressed endless 
duration. Now, if alonios then meant endless duration, 
why did he qualify it by ateleutetos? The fact that he 
did, demonstrates that even as late as A. D. 540, aionios meant 
limited duration, and required an added word to impart to it 
the force of endless duration. 

Olympiodorus, an Aristotelian philosopher, contemporary 
with Justinian, is quoted by Dr. Edward Beecher 29 as saying, 
"When aionios is used in reference to a period which, by 

28 A. D. 540. 29 Hist. Fut. Ret. 



158 AION-AIONIOS. 

assumption, is infinite and unbounded, it means eternal, but 
when used in reference to times or things limited, the sense is 
limited to them." He denies that punishment is endless, but 
says that it is aionion, that is, lasting for a definite aion, after 
which the sinner is purged. Dr. Beecher quotes, through 
Prof. Abbott, of Cambridge, Mass., from Ideler's edition of the 
commentary of Olympiodorus on the "Meteorologica of Aris- 
totle " 30 the following from Olympiodorus :— "Do not suppose the 
soul is punished for endless aions 31 in Tartarus. Very properly 
the soul is not punished to gratify the revenge of the divinity ,but 
for the sake of healing. But we say that the soul is punished for 
an aionian period, 32 calling its life, and its allotted jDeriod 6f 
punishment, its 33 aion.'''' Si Undeniably, endless peons are here 
contrasted with an Eeonian period, the former denoting endless, 
and the latter limited, duration. If aion means eternity, why 
endless aions? 

Now, Ignatius, Polycarp, Hernias, Justin Martyr, Irenoeus, 
Hyppolytus, Justinian, and others (from A. D 115 to A. D. 
544), use the word aionion to define punishment. And yet 
some of these taught that decay out of conscious existence is 
the natural tendency of men, from which only some are saved by 
God's grace. Previous to this decay, or extinction of being, 
they held that men experience aionion punishment. It is not 
endless, for it ceases. Justin Martyr says," Souls suffer aionion 
punishment and die." The punishment is in the future world, 
but it concludes with extinction, he says, and yet it is aionion. 

Canon Farrar says, 35 "Even Augustine admits (what, 
indeed, no one can deny,) that in Scripture aion, aidnios must 
in many instances mean 'having an end/ and St. Gregory of 
Nyssa, who at least knew Greek, uses aidnios as the epithet of 
'an interval.' " [See appendix D.] 



so Vol. I., p. 282, f. 32., Aldine ed., Olynip., quoted by Dr. Beecher, Hist. 
Fut. Ret., note 4. 

31 'ATrsipovg ai&vag. 32 'Aluviug. 

33 'Aiav. 34 Hist. Fut. Re t., p. 166. 

35 Excursus on Aidnios, in Eternal Hope. 



USAGE — THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. 159 

These eminent patristic writers and early Christians, and 
others, demonstrate by their use of the word that it did not mean 
endless duration for at least six centuries after Christ. To say 
that any one who contradicts them is correct, and that they did 
not know the meaning of the word, or use it correctly, is like 
saying that an Australian, twelve hundred years hence, will be 
better able to give an accurate definition of English words in 
common use to-day, than we are ourselves. They could not 
be mistaken, and the fact that they required qualifying words 
to give aionion the sense of endless duration — that they used it 
to describe punishment when they believed in the annihilation 
of the wicked, or in their restoration subsequent to aionion 
punishment, irrefragably demonstrates that the word had not 
the meaning of endless to them, and if not to them, then it 
must have been utterly destitute of it. 



There are few things in the history of language more 
astounding than that this word should have been so obscured 
by error and ignorance, as to carry a meaning for centuries 
utterly foreign and alien. It has resembled those frightful 
daubs which monkish superstition has wrought, which, when 
cleansed by the hand of taste, are seen to have been palimp- 
sests, and that under the crude design of the monk are con- 
cealed the rare achievements of genius. It is the work of 
modern scholarship to restore the word to the meaning it had 
for a thousand years before, and at least five hundred years 
after, Christ. Certainly the Christian Fathers employed it as 
it was used by the ancient Greeks, the LXX, and the New 
Testament authors, and it is the duty of the Christian 
to-day to understand it as did all who used it until less than 
fifteen hundred years ago. Even the German Lutheran, J. C. 
Dcederlein, admits . 35 — "As to public teaching, the most 
ancient testimony against the end of future punishment is 
extant in a canon of Justinian's tractate to Mennas against 

s 6 Instit. Theol., Chr. II., pp. 199-2 



160 AION-AIONIOS. 

Origen (ap. Harduin. vol. iii. Concil. p. 279, can. 9) : — 'If any- 
one says or holds that the punishment of demons and impious 
men is temporary, and that it will have an end at some time, 
that is to say, that there is a restoration of demons or impious 
men, he is accursed.' It is also evident that very many doctors 
held the same view. . . . But that was not the confession of 
all, and the more highly distinguished in Christian antiquity 
any one was for learning, so much the more did he cherish and 
defend the hope of future torments some time ending. 37 This, 
however, was not the view of a few persons, and one privately 
entertained, but general, and maintained by many advocates. 
Augustine, at least (Enchiridion, c. 112), testifies that 'some, 
nay, very many, pity with human feeling the everlasting pun- 
ishment of the damned, and do not believe that it is to be so.' 
. . The following age, although a belief in perpetual tor- 

ments prevailed by authority, yet clearly did not lack milder 
views." 

Should any reader of this volume ask, "Why all this labor 
to establish the meaning of one word ? " the author would answer 
that such alabor should seem unnecessary. Men ought to refuse 
to credit such a doctrine as that of endless punishment on 
higher grounds than those of verbal definition. Reverence, 
not to say respect, for God, the fact that he is the Father of 
mankind, should compel all to reject the doctrine of endless 
torment, though the weight of argument were a thousand-fold 
to one in favor of the popular definition of this word. But 
there are those who disregard the moral argument against the 
doctrine which is unanswerable; who violate the noblest 
instincts of the heart and soul, which plead trumpet-tongued 
against that horrible nightmare of doubt and unbelief ; who 
cling to the mere letter of the word, which kills, and ignore 
the spirit, which gives life ; who insist that all the voices of 
reason and sentiment should be disregarded because the Bible 
declares the doctrine of endless punishment for sinners. It is 

37 See motto on title page. 



USAGE — THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. 161 

for such that these facts have been gathered, and this essay 
written, that no shred nor vestige even of verbal probability- 
should exist to mislead the mind, and so seem to sanction the 
doctrine that defames God and distresses man ; that it might 
be seen that the letter and the spirit of the word agree, and 
are in perfect accord with the dictates of reason, the instincts 
of the heart, and the impulses of the soul, in rejecting the 
worst error that ever yet was invented, — the monstrous false- 
hood that represents God as consigning the souls he has 
created in his own image to interminable torment. It is 
because the word under examination is the foundation-stone of 
that evil structure, that this monograph has been written. 

The author believes it has appeared as the result of this 
discussion that 

1. There is nothing in the etymology of the word warrant- 
ing the erroneous interpretation of it. 

2. That the definitions of lexicographers uniformly given 
not only allow but compel the view we have advocated. 

3. That Greek writers before and at the time the Septua- 
gint was made, always gave the word the sense of limited 
duration. 

4. That such is the general usage in the Old Testament. 

5. That the Jewish Greek writers at the time of Christ 
ascribed to it limited duration. 

6. That the New Testament thus employs it. 

7. That the usage for several centuries after Christ was 
uniform with the ten centuries before Christ. 

Hence it follows that the readers of the Bible are under 
the most imperative obligations to understand the word in all 
cases as denoting limited duration, unless the subject treated, 
or other qualifying words, compel them to understand it 
differently. 

If our positions are well taken, the Bible does not teach 
the doctrine of endless torment ; for, it will be admitted, that if 
this word does not teach it, then that dreadful dogma can- 
not be found in the sacred pages. 

11 



162 AION-AIONIOS. 

Can any evidence on any subject be more unanswerable 
than the foregoing ? Any one department of the proof we have 
adduced would seem sufficient to sustain our position, but each 
has a cumulative force, and all together are irref ragable. Each 
one of the multitude of facts we give is as a fiber, in a cable whose 
strength no power can break, and we close our argument, con- 
fidently affirming that the voice of Greek literature for a 
millennium and a half declares that limited duration is the 
utmost force of the seonian phraseology. 



APPENDIX A. 



We are informed by President White, who has made this subject a 
patient and conscientious study for years, that many passages might be 
quoted from the Greek Anthology to the same purport as those we have 
taken from the Classics. We here cite passages which he has found. 

The first is a remarkable extract from Xenophon (fifth century B. C). 
Its value on this question can hardly be over-estimated. It is found in the 
tenth Chap, of the Agesilaus, and the fourth section. "Having reached the 
extreme limit of human lepe" (avdpoTrivov aiuvog). Here we have a human 
(avdporrivov) aion. It means the period of a human life. Does not this 
more than suggest that the length of the aion depends upon that to which it 
is applied? 

The most striking passage, perhaps, to be found in Greek literature, con- 
tains the three words fiiog , aiwv and aidiog . It is found in the concluding 
paragraph of the Agesilaus. Xenophon is highly eulogising his hero, and 
continues thus :— "Who in the vigor of life, inspired his enemies with such 
fear as did Agesilaus even when he had already reached the longest period of 
life (aluvog) allotted to man? Whom would his enemies prefer to have out of 
the way more than Agesilaus even when he was in extreme old age ? Who 
infused such confidence into his allies as did Agesilaus , and that, too, when 
he was already on the very verge of life ((3kv)? What youth was more 
cherished by friends than was Agesilaus, though dying, well stricken in 
years ? Thus, in fine, did this man continue to be useful to his country, and 
while still, even to the end of his career, rendering signal service to his city, 
he was brought to his eternal home, (aldiov oinqciv) ; having erected monu- 
ments of his valor throughout the whole earth, but having the good fortune 
to obtain a royal tomb in his native country." Here the idea of existence 
(aion), of life itself (bios), and of eternity (aidion), are all contained in one pas- 
sage, and the fact that aion denotes a limited period, and aic&'ew an unlimited 
could hardly be stated in plainer terms. 

The same idea is distinctly taught in a passage from the Argonautica of 
Apollonius Ehodius (B. C. 200.), "For a period of time (aluv) sufficiently 
long has already elapsed." (Argonautica, line 276.) The time of this author 
is between the time of the Septuagint translation and that of Christ. 



164 AION-AIONIOS. 

In the Anthologica Graeea (ed. Jacobs), Vol. II, p. 794, is an epigram upon 
a work of Apollodorus (Mythologus), entitled "The Bibliotheca." ApoUodorus 
lived about 140 B. C. This epigram, therefore, could hardly have been written 
earlier than 100B. C. It reads thus :— "Drawing out the coil of time (Alcovoc 
aTreipt/fia)." In another epigram, found on p. 795, of the same volume, occurs 
the following passage :— "(Dexippus) who, having considered well the long 
history of time (aiuvog) , faithfully related it." As the Dexippus here 
spoken of lived in the third century after Christ, we may fix the probable 
date of this epigram at A. D. 300. 

One more citation must suffice. Arethas, a Christian Bishop (A. D. 540 ?), 
m some verses written on the death of his sister, says, "Swift fate (death) 
has extinguished the lamp of my life (aiovoc)." 



APPENDIX B. 

There is but one Greek word besides aidnios rendered everlasting, and 
applied to punishment, in the New Testament, and that is the word a'idios, 
found in Jude 6 :— "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but 
left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting (aiScog) chains 
under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day." This word is 
found in but one other place in the New Testament, viz., Rom. i : 20, 
"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are 
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his 
eternal power and Godhead." 

Now, it is admitted that this word, among the Greeks, had the sense 
of eternal, and should be understood as having that meaning wherever 
found, unless by express limitation it is shorn of its proper meaning. 
It is further admitted that had aidios occurred where aidnios does, there 
would be no escape from the conclusion that the Greek Classics, and 
the Old and New Testaments, teach endless punishment. It is further 
admitted that the word is here used in the exact sense of aibnios, as is 
seen in the succeeding verse :— "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the 
cities about them in like manner, giving 'themselves over to fornica- 
tion, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffer- 
ing the vengeance of eternal fire." That is to say, the "a'idios chains" in 
verse 6 are "even as" durable as the "aidnian fire" in verse 7. No less 
and no more durable. Which word modifies the other? 



APPENDIX B. 165 

1. The construction of the language shows that the latter word 
limits the former. The aidios chains are even as, equal to, the aibnion fixe. 
As if one should say, "I have been infinitely troubled, I have been vexed 
for an hour" ; or, "He is an endless talker, he can talk five hours on a 
stretch." Now, while "infinitely" and "endless" convey the sense of 
unlimited, they are both limited by what follows, as aidios, eternal, is 
in this instance limited by aibnios, indefinitely long. 

2. That this is the correct exegesis is evident from still another 
limitation of the word. "The angels ... he hath reserved in aidios 
chains unto the judgment of the great day." Had Jude said that the 
angels are held in aidios chains, and stopped there, not limiting the 
word, we should not dare deny that he taught their eternal imprison- 
ment. But when he limits the duration by aibnion and then expressly 
states that it is only unto a certain date, we understand that the 
imprisonment will terminate, even though we find applied to it a word 
that intrinsically signifies eternal duration, and that was used by the 
Greeks to convey the idea of eternity, and was attached to punishment 
by the Greek Jews of our Savior's times, to describe endless punish- 
ment, in which they were believers. 

But observe that, while this word, aidios, was in universal use 
among the Greek Jews of our Savior's day, to convey the idea of eter- 
nal duration, and was used by them and the heathen to teach endless 
punishment, he never allowed himself to use it m connection with 
punishment, nor did any of his disciples but one, and he but once, 
and then he carefully and expressly limited its meaning, and did not apply 
it to human misery but to fallen angels. Can demonstration go further 
than this to show that Jesus carefully avoided the phraseology by which 
his contemporaries described the doctrine of endless punishment? He 
never employed it. "What ground, then, is there for saying that he adop- 
ted the language of his day on this subject ? Their language was aidios 
timoria, endless torment. His language was aibnion Tcolasin, age-lasting 
correction. They described unending ruin, he, discipline, resulting in 
reformation. 

Dr. "Whiton most pertinently observes :*— "H now it be assumed that 
a'idian regularly denotes that which is strictly everlasting, then we 
are met by a question that ought to be answered, ' Why, with this 
word at hand, to give precise expression to the idea of endless dura- 
tion, have the sacred books never employed it with reference to the 
future of the human race, but always the indeterminate word ozonian?' 
For instance, in the very next verse (7), Jude, in speaking of the pun- 

*Is Eternal Punishment Eadless? pp. 27-28. 



166 AION-AIONIOS. 

ishnient of Sodoni and Gomorrah, drops the word a'idiaii, just used with, 
reference to the angels, and takes the word ceonian, a change scarcely 
noticed in our version by the change of 'everlasting' to 'eternal/ 
JEonian and didian rnay be used interchangeably in the writings of 
Plato, but they are not in the writings of the Apostles ; in these th© 
futurity of mankind is only ceonian. 

"Professor Bartlett pronounces the occurrence of aldion here (in evi- 
dence, as he assumes, that ceonian is the same as endless) to be 'sin- 
gular and startling.' His wonder suggests to us a further wonder. If 
aidian has the meaning of endlessness any more clearly and strictly than 
ceonian, then the entire avoidanca of this clearer and stricter term, 
throughout the New Testament as descriptive of human destiny in the 
future state is certainly very 'singular,' even if not actually startling. 

"It might, however, be regarded as even 'startling,' if, after all the 
reliance that has been placed upon this passage, it should turn out 
that a limited interpretation is here attached to aidian by its context. 
What if Jude only meant to affirm that the imprisonment of the 
fallen angels is 'everlasting' until the Judgment !— thus leaving the 
after ages unspoken of?" 

Thus the word whose meaning of endlessness no one disputes, is 

1. Never employed to denote the perpetuity of human suffering. 

2. It is not applied to the fate of man at all, but only to certain 
"angels." 

3. When applied to fallen angels it is expressly limited by being 
stated to be even as "ceo?iian," no more. 

4. It ends at the judgment, being only "until" then. 

5. Finally, with this word right within reach, Jesus and his Apos- 
tles declined to use it to describe the punishment of the sinner, but 
only employed the ceonian terms, which uniformly possess the sense of 
limited duration. Can such an omission be explained except on the ground 
that he taught a limited punishment? 

Many instructive passages illustrating the use of aidioc "may be found in 
the work of Gregory of Nyssa entitled, "Against Eunomius." In the "Sum- 
mary" of the work I find the foUowing passage :— "The Creator of the world 
had no beginning, but is without beginning and eternal (aidi.og)." Again he 
says, " Christ is the good will of the Father which was from eternity (e£ 
aidiov).'" Wishing to make clear his view of the eternity of God, Gregory 
says, (Vol. I., p. 156 Oehler's ed.), "We affirm concerning the eternity 
(aldcoTTfrog) of God what we have heard from prophecy, that God is (was) 
before time (-poatuv toe:) , and rides time (filwva), and (literally) unto time (err' 
aluva), and beyo7id(sri).'" "For this reason" he continues, "we pronounce 
(define) him to be before all beginning and beyond all end." Again, p. 377 of 



APPENDIX C. 1C7 

tSie same volume, Gregory says, "But the creation has a beginning in time 
vucjvac), but what beginning think you had the male?' {-oltjtov) of the ages 
(~uv aiojvcju)? Similar passages, however, by this writer are too numerous 
for exhaustive citation. More than one hundred to the same import might 
be collated from his works. Gregory nourished A. D. 370. 

The reader of the Fathers will see that they made a wide and clear dis- 
tinction between aidios and aidn. [President White has furnished the last 
two paragraphs.] 



APPENDIX C. 

There is a seeming contradiction among authors as to the opinions of the 
Jews, at the time of Christ, concerning the duration of punishment. Jose- 
phus expressly declares that the Pharisees and Essenes regarded it as inter- 
minable (see p. 88), while the Kabbins and Jewish authors insist that the 
doctrine was never properly held by the Jews (p. 131). How shall the dis- 
crepancy be reconciled? Thus : though the Old Testament does not teach 
the doctrine (see pp. 86-7), and though it could not be legitimately held, yet 
at the time of Christ multitudes of the Jewish people, more particularly the 
learned classes, had become so Hellenized (pp. 62-63), and this false Pagan 
doctrine had obtained such a foothold that Jesus rebuked the Scribes and 
Pharisees for following the lead of tradition (Mark vii : 9,13 ; Matt, xxii : 29) 
instead of obeying the voice of Scripture. So thoroughly were they saturated 
with the errors of Paganism, on this point, when Jesus revealed the great 
fact of a resurrection to universal holiness and happiness (Mark xii, Luke 
xx) that "the people were astonished at his doctrine." Though not properly 
and legitimately a Jewish tenet, there can be no doubt that the Pharisees and 
their followers, andtheEssenes and the Pagans, held to the doctrine, so that 
when Jesus spoke, many, at least, of his hearers, accepted it. These 
facts explain the conflicting statements of authors on this subject. 



APPENDIX D. 

The astonishing drift of theological criticism from all directions in the 
lines that Universalist scholarship has pursued for the last half century, is 
well illustrated in an able work that reaches us from England, just as our 
last pages are completed— "The Three-fold Basis of Universal Restitution." 
London : Williams and Norgate. The author says (pp. 128-30, 131-34) : 

Aionios is derived from aion (aio/i being a compound of aie always, and on 
being), and is commonly employed in Scripture tc express.a period or time 



168 AION-AIONIOS. 

of indefinite duration, not absolute, but relative perpetuity. Just in the same 
way as we use the terras eternity, perpetuity, when we speak of the region of 
eternal (perpetual) snow, the eternal ice of the poles, perpetual curacy. 
Thus aion is the literal Greek equivalent of the Hebrew term 0?)]f 
(hidden time), for ever, the world or universe. The Bible has no distinct, sepa- 
rate expression for eternity irf the absolute sense of infinite duration. All 
the Biblical expressions of duration imply or denote long periods connected 
with one another. "The formula elg rov alibva, to eternity, for ever, is in every 
respect parallel with the others, elg rovg aiuvag, for ages, for ever, elg rovg 
atuvag ruv aioivtJVj for ages of ages, for ever and ever (Gal. i: 5), expressions 
which denote the aeternitas a parte post, or the future conceived as an 
indefinitely extended period."* In such expressions as "before all ages," 
"before the world," the true meaning of aion as denoting, not absolute 
eternity, but duration, conceived as an indefinitely extended period 'or 
periods, is manifest. As derived from aion, signifying age or dispensation, 
aionios may be properly rendered age-long or age-enduring. It is true, that 
aion, as derived from aie and on, might in virtue of its abverbial component 
aie, always, be employed to denote that -which is absolutely eternal. We do 
not, however, find that it is so used in the Scriptures. It is frequently 
employed in the New Testament, in the sense of age or dispensation, and is 
the terra used by our Lord to designate "the contrasted epochs of Judaism 
and Christianity." Hence, aionios is the adjective form of aion, and as 
applied to the same dispensations or epochs, is fitly rendered age-long. 
Thus the idea that aionios as applied to rewards and punishments means 
endless, has no foundation in the literal sense of the terra, nor in its 
scriptural and general applications. There are, however, insuperable 
objections against this sense being given to the term in the case of punish- 
ments. Not on grounds of philology alone must its meaning in this instance 
be decided, but on other grounds as well. The state of punishment under 
God's moral government cannot, in the nature of things, be endless or final. 
The end for which punishment exists requires that it should cease. Men 
were created not to suffer endless misery, but to be made perfect and happy. 
Punishment exists not as an absolute end, but a means. It is necessary, 
to the moral training of man, that the evil into which he is betrayed should 
be manifested in its appropriate fruit, its essential misery and falsity; 
and for this end punishment is inflicted. When the lesson has been learned, 
and the evil way is renounced, punishment must cease. To say that God 
wills punishment to exist for ever, is to affirm that God fatally dooms some 
men to evil. It is^to hold that through eternity God preserves existence to a 

*01shausen on the Gospels (Matt, xii: 31, 22). 



APPENDIX D. 169 

personal being, only in order to take from him, through eternity, the possi- 
bility of being good or ceasing to do evil. 

While we have no clear proof that the term aionios is ever nsed in 
Scripture in the sense of absolute eternity, we have abundant evidence that 
it is often used in a sense that does not involve that idea. On this ground, 
as well as on grounds of reason, we are warranted to infer that, as applied 
to future punishment, aionios is used in the non-absolute sense. That 
aionios is frequently employed in Scripture to express limited duration can- 
not be denied. It is so used when it is applied to the mountains and the 
land of Canaan ; also where it is connected with the covenant of circumci- 
sion and the law of the Passover, unless, indeed, it be held with the Jews that 
no alteration can happen to the Ceremonial Law, since God himself has 
declared that it shall last for ever. So far, indeed, is this word from signi- 
fying a necessary perpetuity, that it is even applied to those things which 
have a very short duration, as "He shall serve him for ever" (Ex. xxi:6); 
that is, as the Jews themselves expound, to the next Jubilee, whether it 
were near or far off. Just in the same sense Samuel is said to abide before 
the Lord "for ever." In the reduplicated form, a certain emphasis only is 
given without any material change of signification. In this doxible form it 
is frequently used in quite a limited sense (Isa. x : S ; Jer. vii: 7 ; xxv: 5). 
In the New Testament also the word "eternal" is used in a limited sense, as 
when Sodom and Gomorrah are said to be "set forth, suffering the vengeance 
of eternal fire" ; and when the throne of Christ is said to be for ever and 
ever (Heb. i : 8), though it must end when "he snail deliver up the kingdom 
to God." The endless perpetuity of future punishment, as founded upon 
the statement of our Lord concerning the fire that shall not be quenched, 
and the worm, that dieth not, is explained by the statement in Leviticus, 
where it is said that the fire burning upon the altar shall "never go out"; 
yet this fire has gone out, for the Messiah caused the sacrifice and the obla- 
tion to cease. Again, fire to consume Jerusalem (Ez. xx : 48) which shall not 
be quenched, is threatened; yet this fire has ceased, and Jerusalem is at 
this moment inhabited. The expression, "the smoke of their torment 
ascendeth up for ever and ever," is clearly a metaphor expressive of limited 
duration. For the substance from which it is evolved burns ; and we can 
not conceive that any s~ bstance can burn without loss of parts, which here 
are perpetually ascending, and " where no wocd is there the fire goeth out." 
This same metaphor, as employed by Isaiah, is clearly subject to the limita- 
tion above specified, where, speaking of the judgments of God upon a cer- 
tain people, it is declared that the fire, the instrument of punishment, 
"shall not be quenched, night or day" ; " the smoke thereof shall go up for 
ever." Yet, subsequently, it is intimated that the wild beasts and birds of 
the forest shall possess it "for ever." 



170 AION-AIONIOS. 

When, therefore, it is considered that this term aionios, translated 
"eternal" or "everlasting," is commonly used in Scripture to express limited 
duration merely, it is all but certain that when employed in the New 
Testament with reference to the realities of the Christian ages or times, 
called in Bom. xvi: 25, "ozonian times" (in Authorized Version, "since the 
world began"*), aionios is to be interpreted in its usual limited import. In 
the New Testament, however, aionios as connected with the Christian ages 
or ozons becomes slightly modified in meaning. The element of time drops 
out of sight, and its significance as an epithet is found in the character of 
the ages with which it connects its substantive. Thus ozonian punishment 
is the punishment distinctive of the Christian ages. In like manner, 
ozonian life is the life of ages, the ozonian God (Horn, xvi : 26) is the God of 
ages, the ozonian Spirit (Heb. ix : 14) is the Spirit of ages. There are, then, 
but two senses in which this term is clearly used in Scripture ; it is used in 
the sense of age-long, and it is used to express connection with the Chris- 
tian ozons. If, then, the word ozon is not used in Scripture, nor anywhere 
else, in the sense of endlessness, but always denotes a period of time 
(otherwise, how could Scripture speak of ozons and ozons of ozons?), neither is 
ozonian used in that sense. Hence the doctrine of endless punishment has 
no ground in Scripture ; for the ozonian punishment, whether understood in 
the sense of age-long, or punishment of or pertaining to the ages, is no more 
endless than are the ages to which it pertains. This series of ozons, with 
their varied phases of special reward and punishment, which, according to 
the New Testament, precede and prepare men for the final state, must end 
before Christ can deliver up his kingdom. Thus the seonion reward and 
punishment are clearly connected with the Kingdom of Christ in its present 
and future manifestations, seonianlife being the life of the ages, and seonian 
punishment the punishment of the ages, viz., the Christian ages. In accor- 
dance with this view, we read (II.Tim. i : 9) of grace given us in Christ before 
the foundation of the world (times of the ages), and of the end of the times 
(Heb. ix. 26) or meeting-point of the ages. Also, in I. Cor. x : 11, we have the 
expression rrpiT] rcov aiuvuv ends of the ages. Thus the aeonian times or 
times of the ages, and the aluve^ , are identical, and represent periods or 
epochs of limited duration only. Hence our modern conception of duration, 
as developed by the Church, entirely misconceives and misrepresents the 
New Testament doctrine of the ages. Indeed, the Biblical conception of 
duration throughout is not the modern one— i.e., of time immediately suc- 
ceeded by eternity-absolute, but of .Eon succeding Mon, economy following 
enconomy, until the final Divine order is firmly established. 



*Salvator Mundi. 



INDEX OF TEXTS. 



OLD TESTAMENT. 



Page. 

Genesis,iii : 22 10 

vi:3,4 10, 14 

vi:4 74 

ix:12,16 10,09,74 

xiii:15..10, 69,73, 74, 78 
xvii: 7, 8, 13, 19.. 12, 69 

70,72,73,75.77 

xxi:33 15,72,78 

xxix:3 143 

xlviii: 4 73, 75, 77,78 

xlix:26 73, 77,78 

Exodus iii: 11 18 

iii:15 78 

xii:14,17, 24... .69, 75, 80 

xiv: 13 78 

xv: 18 71, 75,76, 99 

xix:9 69 

xxi:2 134 

xxi:6..12, 70, 134, 140, 

142,143,169 

xxvii:21 69 

xxviii: 43 69 

xxix:9,28 69,80 

xxx:21 69 

xxxi:16, 17 69,72 

xxxii: 13 69,73 

xl:15 15,69,70,75,77, 

78,80 

Levit.iii: 17 69, 80 

vi:13,18,22 69,80 

vii:34, 36 69 

x: 15 69 

xvi : 29, 31, 34. .69,73, 75, 77, 

78 

xvi 78 

xvii: 7,11 69 

xxiii:14, 31, 41 69 

xxiv:3, 8, 9 69,75 

xxv : 10, 39, 41, 46.. 67, 73, 

75,134,142 

xxvi 108 

Deut. xv: 17 15, 67, 73,78,80, 

142 

xxiii: 3,6 80 

xxxii : 7 67 

xxxii: 40 143, 144 

Nunib.x: 8 69, 75,78 

xv:15 69 

xviii: 8, 11, 19, 23. .69,78, 80 

xix: 10, 21 , 69 

xxv: 13.... 69, 72, 73,75,77, 
78 

Josnuaiv: 7 69, 77, 78 

xiv: 9 69,78,80 

I.Sara.i: 22 76, 78,83 

ii:30 15 

vi:9 143 

vii:22 143 



Page. 

I.Sani. xiii: 13 69 

xxvii:12 78 

II. Sam. vii : 13, 16, 24, 25, 26, 29. . 

, 68,69 

xii: 10 77 

xxii: 51 69 

xxiii: 5 69 

I. Kings i : .31 15, 78 

ii: 33, 45 68,69 

viii: 13 78, 80 

ix:3,5 68, 69,78 

x:9, 10 69 

II. Kings v : 27 73, 77, 78, 80 

xxi: 7 69 

I.Cnron. xv: 2 69 

xvi: 17 69 

xvii: 12, 14,22, 23, 27.. 68, 

69,75 

xxii: 10 69 

xxiii : 13, 25 69,78 

xxviii : 4, 7, 8 ... .68, 69, 78 

ILChron. ii : 4 69 

vii:3, 16 69 

ix:8 69 

xiii: 5 68 

xxx : 8 69 

xxxiii:4 69 

Judges ii: 1 69 

Job v 108 

xii: 12 78 

xl:4 78 

xii: 4 80 

Psalms ix: 5 81 

xviii: 50 69 

xxi:4 15 

xxiv:7 77 

xxv: 6 66 

xxxvii : 25, 29 78, 142 

xliv : 25 82 

xlviii:8, 14..67, 69, 73,78, 

.99 

lxxiiiV 12 .' .' .' .'.'.'.'.".'.'." '.'.'.'.'.' '67 

lxxvii: 5, 7 15, 69 

lxxviii:66 81 

lxxxviii:13, 69 17, 78 

lxxxix:3, 4.. 29, 36, 37,67, 

68,69 

xc:2 15 

cii : 28 69 

civ: 5 78 

cv:8 69 

ex: 4 67, 142 

exi: 9 142 

cxii: 6 78,81 

c>iv: 2, 21 99 

cxix: 43, 44, 52.. 67, 66, 76, 
99, 



172 



AION-AIONIOS. 



Page. 

cxix: 67, 71,75 108 

cxxxii: 12 69 

cxxxvi : 8 78 

cxxxvi: 17 143 

cxliii: 3 15, 67 

cxlv: 13 15 

cxlviii:4, 6 76,77, 99 

Eccl.i:4 15,78,140 

i:10 66 

iii:ll 12,15 

xii:5 15 

Prov. iii : 11, 12 108 

viii:23 66 

x:7 81 

xxii:28 69,72 

xxiii:10 69 

Isaiahix:7 67 

x:8 169 

xiii: 20 69 

xxiii:7... 69 

xxiii:20 69 

xxiv: .5 69 

xxiv: 9, 10 69 

xxiv: 12 142 

xxv:6 117 

xxv : 12 82 

xxvL: 4 133 

xxvi: 5 82 

xxx : 8 77 

xxx : 29 133 

xxxiii : 14, 20 69, 80, 81 

xxxiv : 10. .69, 73, 75, 77, 81, 

142 

xl:4 84 

xl:28 78 

xlvi: 9 66 

li:9,10 15,67 

li:ll 78 

liv:8 70,78 

lv:3, 13 78 

lvi:5 78 

lvi:24 136 

lviii: 12 69, 74 

lix:21 67 

lx:15,19 76,78 

lxi:4 69 

lxi:7 78 

lxiii:ll 69 

lxiii:12 78 

lxiv:4 12, 66 

Jer.ii:19 108 

ii: 20 66 

v:22 70 

vi:16 69 



Page. 

vii : 7 69, 73, 77, 142, 16& 

xvii : 4, 25. . . .69, 73, 77, 78, 81 

xviii. 15, 16 69, 70,74 

xx:ll 70,82 

xxii: 15, 40 69, 75 

xxiii: 39, 40 70, 81, 83, 84 

. xxv: 5, 9, 12... 70, 77, 142, 169 

xxviii.8 66 

xxxi : 40 69, 73, 78 

xxxi:49 69 

xxxii:40 75 

xlviii:47 81 

xlix:6 81 

li:39,57 15,70 

lxvi:24 136 

Lam. iii: 6.. , 67 

iii: 31, 33 108 

v:19 76 

Ezek. xvi: 60 69 

xxvi: 20 67,69 

xxvn: 25 142 

xxvii:26, 28 .....'69 

xxxv: 5, 9 70 

xxxvi:2 70 

xxxvii:25 68,69,78, 142 

xxxvii:26 69, 78 

xliii:7 69 

Hos.xiii:14 117 

Dan. ii : 4 77 

ii:44 67, 77,78,82 

vii: 18 9S 

vii: 27 78 

ix:24 78 

xii:2 82,118 

xii:3, 7 71,75,82,99 

Nehe.ii: 3.. 78 

Joel ii:26,27 76,77 

iii:20 69,142 

Micahii: 9 70 

iv:5 11,71, 76,79 

vii:14 67 

Amosi: 3 69 

i:ll 69 

ix: 11 67 

Jonah ii: 6 9,70,72,73,75, 78 

Hab. iii : 6. .9, 72, 73, 75, 77, 78, 84, 

116 

Nahura iii : 1 143 

Mal.i:4 82 

iii: 2, 3 Ill, 135 

iii: 4 67 



APOCEYPHA. 



Wisdom iii : 11. 
xvi : i . 



Page. 
...110 
...110 



LMacc. vii: 7. 



Page. 
...110 



INDEX OF TEXTS. 



173 



NEW TESTAMENT. 



Page. 

Matthew vi : 13 100, 102 

vii:33 35 

x:30 102 

xii: 22, 39,40, 49 100, 

133 

xii: 32.. 93, 104, 132,134 
xiii: 22, 39, 40, 49.... 93, 

95-7, 133, 134 

xiii: 30, 32 100, 134 

xvi: 6 90 

xviii: 8 104, 135 

xviii:20 25 

six: 11-, 19 94, 147 

xix: 29 128 

xxi: 19 94, 100, 140 

xxii: 22 107 

xxiv:3..93,100, 102,133, 

134 

xxiv: 3, 27, 30, 37, 39, 

42, 46, 48, 50 108, 

109, 133 

xxiv: 4 97, 108 

xxiv: 6, 15, 20, 33, 34.. 

_ 108, 109 

xxiv: 15, 10 82 

xxv : 6, 10,13, 19,27, 31.. 

108 

Xxv: 32, 33 115 

xxv: 34, 45 106 

xxv: 41, 46.. 94, 101,104, 
106, 124, 125, 126, 128, 
,...135, 147, 148, 154 

xxv: 46 81, 89, 94, 

102, 106, 113, 114, 118, 

119 

xxviii:20..93, 100, 102 

Mark iii : 29 104, 132 

iv: 19 93, 100, 102 

vii: 9 167 

ix: 43-48 134,136,137 

x:17, 30 94, 100, 102, 

128, 147 

xi : 14 94, 100, 103, 140 

xii 167 

Xiii: 1,34 109 

xv:8 25 

Lukei:33 92,95, 100,102, 

140, 142,144 

i:55 100 

i:70 93,95,98,100,133 

x: 25 94 

xii: 10 132 

xvi: 8 93, 95, 100 

xvi: 9 94 

xviii: 18, 30 94, 100, 128, 

147 

xx:34, 35 93, 99,100 

xx 167 

xx: 36 117 

xxi: 5, 7 109 

xxi:20,21 82 

xxi: 25, 32 109 

John iii: 15, 16, 36... 94, 127, 128' 

. 147 

IV : 14, 36.... 94, 100, 102, 140 



Page. 

Johnv:21.29 83 

v : 24, 39 94, 117, 129 

vi : 33, 34, 53 127, 128 

Vi : 27, 40, 47, 51, 54, 68. . .94, 

100, 103, 127, 140 

vii: 33 25 

viii : 35, 51, 52 ... .94, 95, 100, 

103, 144 

viii: 47 25, 103, 144 

ix: 25 25 

ix:32....93, 95, 96, 98, 100, 

102, 140 

x:28 94, 100, 127,140 

xi:26 94, 100 

xii: 25, 50 94, 128 

xii: 34 95, 100, 103, 144 

xiii : 8 94, 100, 103, 140 

xiv: 16 95, 100, 103, 140 

xiv:19 127 

xiv: 50 12, 127 

xv:12 143 

xvii: 1, 2 126 

xvii : 2 94, 128 

xvii:3 127 

xvii: 5 117 

xviii: 37 25 

Acts iii: 21 93, 98, 100, 133 

iv:21 Ill, 113 

vi:10 52,123, 124 

vii: 51 25 

xiii:46 147 

xv:18 93,98, 100 

Romans i : 20 122, 123, 164 

i:23 120, 123 

i:25 95, 100 

ii:7 94, 120,124 

v:21 94, 128 

vi: 22, 23 94 

ix: 5 95, 101 

xi: 25,26 75 

xi: 36 95, 101 

xii: 2 15, 93, 100, 102 

xv : 25 : 96 

xvi:25 94, 117, 170 

xvi: 26 117, 170 

xvi: 26, 27 95, 101 

I. Cor. i: 20 100 

ii:6, 7,8 93, 100 

ii: 7 100, 102, 133 

iii:18 93,100 

v: 5 137 

viii : 13. ... 94, 100, 140, 143 

ix:l 25 

ix:25 120, 123 

x:ll 93, 97, 100, 102, 

133, 134,170 

xi:31 101 

xv 67, 117, 119, 135 

xv: 22- 67, 117 

xv : 24, 28 92, 144 

xv:28 95, 144 

xv : 42, 50 120, 123 

xv : 51, 54 120, 122, 123 

xv : 52 126 



174 



AION-AIONIOS. 



Page. 

n.Cor.iv:2 25 

iv:4 93,100 

iv:17 94,99 

iv:18 95 

v;l 95 

vi:10 25 

ix:9 95, 1U0 

xi:31. 93, 95,101, 102 

Gal.i:4 93, 100 

i: 5 95, 96, 97, 99, 101, 168 

i:14 93 

vi:8 94 

Eph. i:10 132 

i:21 93,100 

ii:2 93,100, 102 

ii: 9 134 

ii:7....96, 97, 100, 101, 102 
iii:9, 11.. 93, 95, 98,101,133, 

134 

iii : 21. .94, 96,99, 101, 102, 134 

v:14 83 

Ti:12 100 

Col.i:26 97, 101,133,134 

Philip, iv : 20 95, 96, 99, 101 

I.Thess. v:3 137 

II. Thess.i:9...104, 113,127,137 
ii:16 94 

I. Tim.i:4 121,123 

i:16 94 

i: 17.. 95, 96, 99, 101, 102, 

120, 122 

v:6 82 

vi:9 137 

vi: 12 94,147 

vi:16 120, 124 

vi:17 96,100 

II. Tim. i 9 94,97,133 

i: 10 120,124 

ii:10 95 

iv:10 94,100 

iv:18 95,96,99,101 

Titusi:2 94,133 

i:12 25 

ii: 12 94, 100 

iii : 7 94 

Philemon 15 94 

Hebrews i: 2 94, 100,102 

i:8 96,99,101 

ii:12 15 

iii: 1.10 25 

v:6 100,140 

v:9 94 

vi:2 95,104,138 

vi:4 129 

vi:5 100, 140 

vi:6 134 

vi:20 92,100,140 

vii:6 119 



Hebrews vii: 11, 12 15 

\ii:15, 16 122,123 

vii:16 119,121,122 

vii:17, 21, 24,28.-92,95, 

-A 100, 140 

ix:12,14,15 95 

ix:23 133 

ix:26....94, 97, 100,133 

134, 170 

x:29 114 

xi:3 94, 100 

xii: 5 107 

xii:9 135 

xii: 29 135 

xiii:8, 21 95, 96,101 

xiii:20 95 

xvii: 21 92 

I. Pet.i:3, 4 119, 122, 123 

i:23 100, 123 

i:25 95 

iii : 15 25 

iii: 18, 20 92,138 

iv: 11 92,95, 99,101 

v: 4.... 99, 101, 119, 120,123 

v:10, 11 95, 99,101 

II.Pet.i:ll 92 

i:12 25 

i:17 104, 137, 138 

ii: 9 Ill, 113 

iii: 18 92, 95, 100 

Jude6 122, 164 

7 35, 104,135, 165, 

13 104, 137,138* 

21 94 

25 95 

I. John i : 2 94 

ii:15 15 

ii:17 95, 100 

ii:25 94 

iii: 15 94,128 

iv:18 Ill, 113, 114 

v: 11, 13,20 94,128 

II. John, 2 95, 100 

Kev.i:6 92, 96,101 

i.18 95, 99,101 

iii : 1 82 

iv : 9, 10. . . .95, 96, 99, 101, 102 

V: 13,14 95, 96,99,101 

vii:12 95,96, 99, 101 

x: 6 95, 99, 101 

xi:15 92, 99,101 

xiv: 6 93 

xiv: 11...96, 99, 101, 104, 139 

xv : 7 95, 96, 99, 101 

xviii: 3 143 

xix:3 99, 101,104, 139 

xx : 10.. 96, 99, 101, 104, 133, 

139, 142, 143, 147 

xxi:4 Ill 

xxii:5 95, 99,101 



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